Dogman
by demonspawn666
Summary: Inuyasha and Kagome's friendship is falling apart. He doesn't realize his feelings for her and she's oblivious to the problem. And now...he learns he's a hanyou and slowly becomes the town's hero, Oh lord...
1. Is this good or bad?

DOGMAN I:  
A HERO IS BORN

Chapter one:

She got dressed in a pale pink tank top, white skirt with tiny ladybugs that reached her knees, and a light denim jacket. She put on her white Tennis shoes before running out the door.

"Umff!" She hit someone.

"Hey watch where you are going b- Oh Kagome it's you. Sorry, I was running late so I wasn't really watching where I was going." He gave his neighbor a hand. She took it.

"It's okay Inu, I was running just like you." They just stood there staring into each other's eyes. They realized they were still holding hands and gently let go. They were just friends, very good friends. They began walking down the street together. He was wearing a red muscle shirt and carpenter pants. His long ebony hair was uncombed and in his eyes. Her onyx hair shimmered in the morning sun. He noticed.

"So Kagome...you going to ride the bus this morning?" he asked.

"No, I don't think so, I'd rather walk. It's really quiet in the morning, it's nice. Besides I have to drop something off at work."

He knew her answer, but he always wished it would change. He was her best friend. She never really talked to him in school. He knew it was because of his other friends. He would drop them all for her, but he knew she would never forgive herself if he did, even if she didn't really do anything.

They went their separate ways once they reached Magnolia Street. He walked to the bus stop and waited for the school bus. She continued walking to the Newspaper Office. He watched her as she walked. 'She is so quiet. I wish my other friends were like her, but then she wouldn't be as special as she is to me. I really wish she would hang out with me at school. She is just so much more interesting then most of my other friends

"Inuyasha" he heard a voice call out his name. "Inuyasha!"

"What!!!!!" he yelled out in anger. He turned around and saw Miroku, another of his best friends. He was wearing a dark purple Old Navy shirt and some black jeans. He was also wearing a perverted smile. "You know, she really is pretty cute. I don't blame you for looking at her that way."

Inuyasha turned pink. 'I was looking at her in a weird way?' Miroku laughed at Inuyasha' s reaction. "Just kidding Inu, besides you have a girlfriend, I know you were just looking at her like...well...like you were thinking something about her...do you even know her Inu?"

Miroku was a little confused. For once he couldn't think of a name for a look. He knew that girl from school, but had never talked to her. She seemed nice to other people, but also looked like she wanted to be alone. 'Why was Inu looking at her that way? I mean it wasn't in THAT way, but it looked like he knew her. When did he ever talk to her? I'm always around him and I have never seen them talk. Weird. Probably nothing. Definitely nothing, Inuyasha is in love with Kikyo.'

The bus stopped and they hopped in. They took their normal seats in the back and silently watched the road go by. Neither of them was really a morning person. The bus stopped and two students, Yura and Ayumi (not Kag's friend in this story), walked in. They sat in front of Inuyasha and Miroku. They were Kikyo' s friends, but Inuyasha didn't really know them all that well. They were talking and of course the guys listened without the girls noticing.

"...Yea you're right that is funny. So...how about that Higurashi girl?"

"What about her?"

"Did you see those scores on her tests?"

"O yea, she got, like, over a 98 percent on all of them."

"I heard that she slept with Mr. Myouga."

"Couldn't have been that good if she only got a 98 percent." They laughed. Miroku noticed his friend tense up from the beginning of this conversation.

'Why? Can't ask, I'll never get anything out of that numbskull' he laughed at an old memory of Inuyasha' s stubbornness.

Back to the girls: "That little whore. Well anyways did you hear about, like..." Inuyasha was mad. No one talks about his friend that way. 'But...Kagome probably wouldn't want to have that extra attention called to her if I did anything.' He sighed.

Kagome's Point of view:

She had just separated away from Inuyasha. She was heading to work. She jumped when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Oh Sango, hi." Sango was Kagome's friend from work. Sango was about twenty, but very childish some times. She thought Kagome was very mature for her age.

"Hey kido, man we need a good story or we are going to loose a lot of money in the next week."

"Yea, well I have been trying so hard, but there really isn't anything interesting happening in this small town."

" Yea, I know, and that is why I am going to use the Internet to find some country or global news that will get us some attention."

"Ooo, good thinking Sango." They walked the rest of the way in silence. They both enjoyed the 'calm before the storm'( the storm being the busy work day) as they would call it. They went up to the third floor where Sango' s cubicle was. It was one of the largest in the building. She had been with the company for a while now, ever since high school when she was only fourteen. She was a great editor and writer. Kagome put down some pictures in front of Sango.

"So these should be good for tomorrow."

"Oh Kagome these are excellent, soon you could be a famous photographer. Oh the possibilities!" Sango got star-eyed. She had always had dreams of knowing a helping a person become famous. She did not want to be famous herself, but she wanted to help people excel at what they were good at so they could one day be known for that talent. She let Kagome take pictures or select artwork for all her stories. They were a great team, and Sango was so happy for the teenager.

Kagome had finished putting the pictures in their correct places and then she left for school. 'Oh, I really wish Sango was my age, and then I would have a friend at school. But wait, I already do, Inuyasha. Why don't I hang out with him? He's offered so many times. I make myself so lonely.'

She sighed and walked to her school. It was a dull day. She had been really bored. Classes flew by, but it still seemed long and boring. When the final bell rang Kagome began walking home, Sango would call her about her job later. She almost jumped out of her skin when she felt a tap on the shoulder.

"Oh Houjo, it's only you." Houjo looked slightly flushed and Kagome was a little ?" Okay so she didn't hear the last part at first but then she figured it out in her head.

"Why of course you can." She smiled at the blushing boy as they walked to her house. They just walked in silence because Houjo was too nervous and Kagome just liked the silence. They reached the stoop and they stood still.

"Well...um thanks Houjo, it was nice of you to do that." She smiled. He looked hopeful.

"So...bye." She waved. His look of hopefulness disappeared. She didn't even know what it was for. 'What does he want?'

"Well, bye Kagome, see you tomorrow." He was about to turn then she realized something. She gave him a peck on the cheek and said, "See you tomorrow."

She walked in her house and closed the door. Houjo just stood there for a while smiling. When he left, loud yelling could be heard even out side of Kagome's house. "Kagome, so that is what you have been doing after school? You are a whore, Kagome, you know that, a WHORE!" tears sprang from Kagome's eyes and she ran out of the house. She hit something hard and looked up to see who it was, but she wasn't the first to speak.

"Kagome!"

"Inuyasha" she got out between sobs. She put her arms around his neck and sobbed into his shirt. He slowly lifted her chin up and spoke to her.

"So I guess you don't want to do your homework at your house right now. Come with me." He led her into his house. He and his brother lived there together. Their parents had passed on, so they were on their own. His brother was sitting on a chair in by the kitchen table. His silver hair was straight and shining in the dim light of the room. He sighed silently. This wasn't the first time this had happened. He felt sorry for the girl, but felt she wouldn't want attention from too many people so he just turned back to his morning paper he had just started at four in the afternoon.

Inuyasha and Kagome slowly walked up from the stairs to his room. Kagome sat on his bed and put his comforter around her body. Inuyasha sat on his desk chair and stared at her for a moment. It was about five minutes and Inuyasha decided to break the silence.

"So what happened this time?"

"She saw me kiss Houjo." Somehow these words upset Inuyasha. Any time a boy was seen near Kagome, her mother, a drunk, would insult Kagome and upset her. Every time Inuyasha found himself staring with pity at the girl. 'Life seems so unfair to a person as great as she is' He sighed and walked toward the bed.

She looked up into his eyes. She smiled. He smiled back. He never really asked questions about what happened. What she did with other guys wasn't his business, and he could hear anything her mother said. 'I hope he is always there for me. I love looking into his eyes. They are very pretty. I hope my husband' s eyes are at least half as beautiful as his. His are the only eyes I ever look into. Maybe that is why we are such good friends. We always seem to know what the other is thinking. I can see it all in his eyes. Wonder how he knows about me?'

He sat down next to her. 'Those eyes! They tell me everything. She is so hurt from her mother. I really wish I could do something about it. Why was she kissing that Houjo guy?' he shook that thought out of his head. 'Man I'm way to over protective of her.'

"So Inu, what's for...for...am I interrupting something?" their heads shot up away from each other' s gaze. Miroku was standing there confused. 'Oh, it's Inuyasha' s friend Maraca or something like that' 'what the hell is he doing here? We aren't doing our homework togeth- oh wait, yes we are. This sure doesn't look good.'

"Oh Miroku, hi. No you aren't interrupting ANYTHING, Kagome here is going to do her homework with us." Miroku shrugged and plopped down on the other side of Kagome.

He looked at her. 'This is the girl Inuyasha was staring at earlier. They know each other? Why is she wrapped up in his blanket?' Inuyasha caught Miroku' s stare "She was cold, so I let her use it." Miroku nodded.

"So you guys actually know each other?" Kagome nodded.

Inuyasha said, "Yea, we have been best friends and neighbors for a long time now." Miroku' s eyes widened a bit as well as Kagome' s. 'He actually wanted his friends to know?'

"So, let me get this straight...not only do you have ANOTHER best friend other than myself, of course, but you never introduced us, or informed us that the other even existed? I'm hurt Inu, hurt I say!" Miroku made a shocked expression and 'fainted'. Inuyasha sighed at his friend's antics.

" Well, actually, Kagome knew about you all along." Kagome smiled and waved to Miroku.

"Well that's a rip off. I never got to formally introduce myself."

"You don't have to." Kagome replied.

"But I insist"

"NO, really you don't have to."

"BUT-"

"Look Miroku, I already told her ABOUT you!" Inuyasha yelled.(Yes...Miroku's...'antics')

Miroku sighed, " So close too."

"And don't you ever try anything like that, EVER, not on her." Miroku held his head down.

"Yea, you have been warned, plus if my mother saw it she would have killed me."

"Well almost every girl's mom would."

"Yea, but you see, my mom is a drunk, and she has these weird mood swings, so she would probably literally kill me."

"Oh" Miroku said.

'I didn't think she'd want other people to know that. I am surprised she'd tell Miroku, especially because she just now met him.' thought Inuyasha.

" And if you are wondering why I told you that, it's because Inu seems to really trust you. He mentions you all the time so it almost feels like I know and trust you." The guys took a few minutes to take all that in yes both of them.

"Well, Kagome, I'm sorry I can't say the same about you."

"That's okay, Inuyasha never talks about me because he knows I don't want people meeting me from another person, if you know what I mean, through gossip, and stuff like that."

Miroku nodded in understanding. Inuyasha was surprised that she knew about his thoughts. "My dad's a drunk." Said Miroku. Inuyasha was even more surprised.

'How could these guys just tell each other that kind of stuff so quickly?' thought Inuyasha.

"I have to work to support us."

"Well, my mom married this bastard, Naraku. He pays the bills, but he...he...I don't know...he makes me uncomfortable, and I don't like being that way."

"Well, you know, all you have to do is ask and either Inu or I can help you."

"I knew that, Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru have both been a great help." They sat in silence.

"Well, aren't we supposed to do our homework?" Kagome brought up. Then they started their work, they all had the same classes, but they just went at different times.

"Well, I have to go home now. Mom's asleep, and that's the best time to go home. She would freak out if she knew I was in a bedroom with two guys for four hours. Bye."

She waved. Inuyasha and Miroku said their goodbyes to her then looked each other in the face. "Inuyasha why didn't you ever tell me about her?"

"Because I didn't think she wanted that attention."

"Inuyasha, it's good of you to not blab on and on about her, but I mean, she's so lonely. Why don't you hang out with her at school?"

"She doesn't like some of our friends."

"Who?"

"Kikyo."

"Then why don't you dump her?"

"Kagome?" (Inuyasha is SO dense...)

"No, you moron, Kikyo."

"Why?"

"Look Inu, I know you love Kikyo and all, but she's mean. Besides, you and Kagome could make a great couple. You could always be there to protect her. You could stop rumors about her at school and it wouldn't be suspicious. Inuyasha she needs you, if you guys don't want to date, you could at least be her friend."

" I am her friend." Miroku shook his head.

"Do you have any idea what it's like to have a drunk as a parent? NO! Well I do. It's hard. You know they don't mean what they say, but what hurts you is that they know what they do to you when they are drunk, but they keep on drinking anyway. It's one thing if your parent hates you like my mom hates me, but when your parent doesn't care, that hurts a hell of a lot more!"

Inuyasha looked down and frowned. "I just don't know what to do." He admitted, defeated. Miroku said bye and left home. Inuyasha stood up and walked outside. He couldn't see much, just what the streetlights illuminated.

He sat on a bench and thought about Kikyo, Kagome, and Miroku. 'How is it that the first time my two friends meet, the time I thought I'd be really happy, I am confused and even a little mad?' He put his fists up in balls and punched the side of the bench. His hand went right through and the bench, or what was left of it, fell down, taking him with it.

"What the?" 'How did I do that? How old was that bench?' he picked up his hand.

"Holy cra-" he was cut off when a hand came to his mouth. Another hand spun him around and he saw his brother standing in front of him. "Sesshoumaru, did you see that? What just happened?"

"Sssshhhh...Inuyasha, you don't want to call attention to yourself!" Inuyasha was confused. His fingernails had grown into claws and his brother seemed perfectly calm about it. They stood in silence.

A warm breeze blew by and Inuyasha say strands of silver hair come from behind him. 'Weird, Sessh is the only one with hair that color, or at least from what I know.' He turned around. No one there. That could only mean one thing.

"Oh, no"

"Let me explain Inuyasha, but first we have to go somewhere where no one can hear us. It's for your own good." They silently walked towards their house. When they finally reached it, they both took seats by the kitchen table.

Sesshoumaru started, "You see how I have silver hair?" Inuyasha nodded.

"Well, it's because I am a youkai."

"A what!" Inuyasha said in confusion.

"Yes Inuyasha, I am a youkai." Inuyasha pointed to himself.

"No." Now Inuyasha was confused. If he wasn't a youkai also, then exactly what was he?

"You are a hanyou."

"Okay..." Inuyasha thought for a moment, "so that means dad was a youkai, and mom was a...human? And your mom must have been a youkai."

"Exactly."

"Then why didn't it show until now?" questioned Inuyasha. Sesshoumaru answered,

"Because there was a spell put on you."

"To be a human?" Sesshoumaru nodded.

"So, why?" Sesshoumaru was quiet for a while.

"Well our parents decided that you should look like you were one or the other, human or demon, and your mother choose for you to be a human just like her."

"Okayyy..." was all Inuyasha could get out. "So that's how you got hear so fast when you must have been inside a while ago? Because you are a youkai?" Sesshoumaru nodded again.

"So how do I get back to my human form?"

And that's the end of the first chapter. I actually edited it! Be proud of me! SO...how'd you like it? Plz Review! I'm begging you!I really need reviews...it's not frusterating unless you have pop-up blocker, then the review page might not come up...otherwise Pls review ppls!!!!!!!!!

demonspawn666 


	2. Meetings

Another editted chappie!! Whoo Hoo!!!!!!!!! You guys can actually read it! YAY!!!!!!!!!

Disclaimer: Yes I own Inuaysha...and Elvis is still alive.....morons

Chapter Two

Kagome had just left Inuyasha' s house. She was in a good mood. She thought she might have just met a new friend. Miroku was really nice, and it seemed that they had a lot in common.

She walked in the back door only to find her mother sleeping on the couch, so she quietly walked to her room and grabbed her camera. No she wasn't going to take a picture of her drunken mom who was thrown across the couch, she was going for a walk to see what she could see.

She changed into a pair of black sweats and a dark blue tee shirt. Hey, she didn't want to be wearing a skirt in this town when she went walking alone at night.

She went towards the park. She loved that place. Someone tapped her on her shoulder; she almost jumped out of her skin (Jeez that seems to be happening a lot).

"Oh my God Sango, don't do that to me at night."

"Hey Kagome, exactly what is a fifteen year old doing at the park at this hour? Meeting someone?" Sango laughed, Kagome was embarrassed.

"No, I just went to go take some pictures, the city looks so beautiful from here, especially when all the lights are turned on."

"Oh Kagome, I forgot to give you an assignment. I guess you can just take pictures of the city right now while I sit on the bench and write about the most beautiful parts of the city, something like this that not everyone has experienced."

"That sounds really nice Sango."

They just stayed in the park in silence for about two hours. They were both getting ready to leave when they heard some gunshots a couple of blocks away.

"Sango, I know this might be risky, but I am definitely going to go check this out."

"Kagome, you could get hurt!"

"You could get first dibs on the best story to happen for weeks!" Sango couldn't argue with that. They began running down to street until they were right by the strange gunshots. There was a child being held by a tall man with a gun. What seemed to be her mother was crying and asking nicely to the man if she could have her baby back. He held the gun at her face and began yelling at the woman. She yelled back. Big mistake! He then brought the gun up to the child's head and began grinning madly.

Kagome and Sango were so close up that they could see the man's fingers tightening around the trigger.

There was nothing they could do, not now anyway. Sango felt horrible. She let a teenager go here. She let a teenager see someone get murdered.

Right before the trigger was pulled a low growling could be heard. The man let the trigger loose and turned to the growling.

Every one was looking at the dark alley just a few feet away from the scene. Out came a person with silver hair and dog-ears.

Kagome's first thought was that it might be Sesshoumaru. She knew that couldn't be. Sessh was nice to her, but he didn't really seem to care about anyone else, and there was the fact that Sesshoumaru' s ears were like humans, just a little pointy. Who was this guy?

They all wondered who this person might be. In a quick second the figure pounced on the man with the gun and they began wrestling. The mother ran up and grabbed her child as Sango began dialing 911. The man was quickly wrestled down.

Kagome took pictures, but no one seemed to notice. They could hear the police from a few blocks away.

Sango faced Kagome "You have to go now. I will be a witness to this crime, but you have to leave, it's past curfew and you'll be up all night telling the police what you saw! You could get in a lot of trouble."

Kagome quickly ran off through the backyards that had no fences. She was lucky that there was just enough of a faint glow from the city that she didn't run into anything. She ran home and developed the pictures.

Sango just stood there waiting for the police to come. The man with silver hair quickly ran to an alley and must have left quit far away. The police cars stopped just yards away from her. They came up to her and the mother with child.

Sango explained everything that she had seen first, because the woman hadn't calmed down yet. Sango got home late that night. She was so very tired.

Sesshoumaru was reading the last page of the newspaper when he heard the door slam open. He raised his head and saw his brother. "Inuyasha, why is it that you are in your hanyou form? I thought that you wanted to be human."

Inuyasha looked down. "I was walking when I saw a man with a gun."

"And..." Sesshoumaru urged his brother to continue.

"Well I couldn't just let him shoot the child so I jumped on him then I left right before the police came." He continued looking down.

"I don't know why you would endanger yourself for a human. I know I wouldn't. They aren't worth it. Your human side has made you week, Inuyasha."

Inuyasha just continued looking down at the floor. "I just didn't want the kid to get hurt."

"SO what if you see another child endangered? What will you do then?"

Inuyasha was silent for a moment. He didn't know how to answer that. "...Maybe...maybe I would just save it."

Sesshoumaru stared at his little brother for a while. "Inuyasha are you aware that you can't allow yourself to be seen like that?"

Inuyasha nodded in understanding. "Because if I do people will hate me...People and demons alike hate hanyous. They are ashamed."

There was a silence and Sesshoumaru nodded. "Maybe I could change that though." Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow.

"And how would you propose to do that Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha looked into his brother's eyes. "Maybe if I help people by using this power...maybe then hanyous could get some respect. It isn't like it's our faults. We can't help what our parents do."

Sesshoumaru nodded in understanding. "You do realize that you cannot reveal your identity."

"Why not?"

"Because then people would think you were just doing it for the glory. Maybe if you were to keep your identity a secret, but let it be known that you are in fact a hanyou maybe that would get you some respect."

"Sesshoumaru, why are you doing this? You never seem so willing to help anyone."

"Well, honestly I don't really know myself. Maybe it is because father always liked you; maybe it is because I don't want you to shame him. I want to keep you from making a fool of him."

Inuyasha frowned. 'Why can't he just be nice?' There was a silence. "Well I am going to bed. I have school tomorrow."

Kagome woke up and put on a white dress. It reached her knees and flared from the bottom. She put on her white tennis shoes and began walking to work. She knew this new story would be good. She was practically skipping all morning.

She even left early. As she waked down the street she felt a tap on her shoulder. She jumped and spun around "Oh Miroku, it's you."

"Hello Kagome, what are you doing out this early? Does it take you that long to walk to school?"

"Oh, well no not really I'm just going to drop some pictures off at work."

"Pictures?" she suddenly stopped walking. Miroku noticed and also stopped.

"Did I say something wrong?" he frowned. She picked her head up and smiled.

"Well, no, I did. It's just that I never told anyone about my job before, not even Inu."

"Oh"

"Well, I guess I could always tell you, but you can't tell anyone else, not even Inuyasha, I actually wanted to wait until something really good happened. SO...promise?"

"Yea sure, I won't tell a soul."

"Well I only believe you because I heard that you are very trustworthy." He smiled. 'Inuyasha must really like me as a friend.'

"Okay, so you see, I am a photographer for the Dayship Picayune." Miroku' s eyes almost popped out of his head. He pointed a finger at her.

"You?"

"Well, it is a small part, but hey, there's always a picture." She chirped.

"Kagome that is a very prestigious newspaper. The only accept the best authors, and those authors are rich. Each author gets to choose his or her own photographer and one of them picked you! Who cares if it's small, you have to be the youngest person to work there!" She blushed at the indirect compliment.

"Well actually, my boss beat me by a year." Miroku just stared at her in awe as they walked down the street.

"So, here it is. You don't have to go though, you can just walk to school or catch the bus if it isn't too late."

"Are you kidding? I am definitely going with you, I may never have this kind of chance again." Kagome laughed at Miroku' s excitement.

They walked into the building and Miroku stopped. Kagome noticed this and turned to him.

"Is something the matter?"

"Miroku?"

"Oh...um Kagome this place is huge! I didn't realize exactly how bid this building was!" She smiled and began walking to the elevator.

"Miss Higurashi, you know you can't just bring in visitors without notifying anyone." She turned to see the secretary.

"Oh, but this is my friend, I'm just going to drop off some pictures to Sango." The secretary 'humphed' and nodded her head.

They went up to the third floor and walked to Sango' s cubicle. She wasn't there. Kagome frowned, "Guess I'll just have to wait for a while. You might want to go without me. We are pretty early and there isn't anything for you to do here."

"No, I think I will stay." So they just stood around and talked about some upcoming tests.

"Hey Kagome, Kagura told me you had a visitor?" asked Sango as she walked in and saw Miroku.

"Oh, I guess you'd be him." She smiled and held out her hand.

"You must be the lovely Sango that I have heard so much about. Please allow me to formally introduce myself."

KONK.

"Miroku don't even think about doing that to her. One she is an adult. Two she's my boss. Three her father is a lawyer." Miroku backed off. Sango giggled at his scared facial expression.

"So I guess you are Miroku. Nice to meet you. So Kagome, did you develop the pictures from last night."

"Oh yea." She held out the pictures to Sango.

"Wow Kagome these are really good. Well, I guess you two can leave now." She waved.

"By Sango. Call me tonight."

"By lovely Sango it was nice to meet you." They left and Sango smiled to herself. 'Oh to be young with friends. They seem so happy.' Miroku and Kagome just walked to school side by side.

They reached the school and Miroku saw Inuyasha and headed towards him. He turned around and noticed that Kagome was still where they had stopped. "Aren't you coming?"

"No, no I have some stuff that I have to do." He smiled then walked off to Inuyasha.

"Hey Miroku! Where have you been? You missed the bus."

"Well actually I didn't miss the bus, I walked with Kagome." Then he glared at Inuyasha. Inuyasha couldn't really reply to that.

"Inuyashie!" Inuyasha tensed up at the sound of the voice. "Inuyashie, why didn't you answer my call last night? I called you at two because I needed a few bucks and you didn't pick up."

"Well maybe I was asleep." She frowned.

"You know Inu, I don't like that attitude of yours." Inuyasha just stared at her. He never liked her attitude. Lately she had been treating him like a slave. He was tired of it. She began to cry. "Inuyasha, why do you hurt me like this? I only wanted some help. You have been so mean to me lately." She got out between sobs. Inuyasha couldn't stand it when girls cried so he comforted her.

"Kikyo baby, I'm sorry, it's just that I have been having a ruff time lately. How about we go to the movies or to a fancy restaurant. We'll do something really special."

She gave a smirk that he couldn't see. What she didn't know is that someone else could. Miroku. He was disgusted by the way she tricked his friend. He also mad that his friend couldn't see through her act.

He just walked away. Inuyasha broke the hug when the first bell rang. He turned to talk to Miroku but found that he wasn't there. He shrugged and walked off with Kikyo.

Miroku walked silently down the hall. He ignored any of his friends that waved to him, or even the one's that pulled him into any conversations. He wanted to talk to someone, but he didn't feel right about it. He wanted to help Inuyasha, but he didn't know anyone who already knew about the situation in full.

He stormed into his class and sat down in the front row. "Miroku? What are you doing so far in the front? I thought you always sat up in the back." He turned to the voice.

"Oh, Kagome, well yea I normally do. I just felt like doing something different today." She smiled and turned back to her book.

"So what are you reading there?" She looked confused for a second and then she realized the book that was in her hand.

"Oh. This, it is the Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, I like Sci-fi and weird stuff like that."

"That's cool. I read that book a few years back. It was really good."

"Yea it is." There was a pause.

"I never thought that you were a person who liked to read." Kagome inquired.

"Well, I guess I'd be kinda surprised too. It's just that sometimes I like to get away from my life, and well reading a book puts me in a different place."

"Yea, I know what you mean. This town, these people, it all gets boring sometimes." They both just stared into space. They seemed to have a lot in common and they were both comforted by that.

It was lunchtime and Inuyasha was mad. He hadn't seen Miroku since that time in the morning. He didn't even say bye. He just left. Then he saw Miroku' s small ponytail and walked in that direction.

"Hey Miroku! Where the hell have you been all day?"

"Oh, Inuyasha it is you. Well for your information, I have been around Kagome all day." Inuyasha just stared at Miroku.

"So why did you just leave earlier?" Miroku shrugged.

"Okay..."

"So, Inu, Kagome's really cool. We have a lot in common. It's kinda weird." Inuyasha stared at Miroku. 'What does he mean by that? Why is he suddenly spending so much time with Kagome lately?'

"Hey Miroku, why are you spending so much time with Kagome? Do you like her or something?" Miroku started to laugh.

"Oh Inuyasha, why do you care? Do you like her or something?" Inuyasha just stood there.

"She's my best friend Miroku."

"And what does that mean? You two would make a great couple." Inuyasha turned a little pink .

"Look Inuyasha, no, I don't like Kagome. Well at least not in THAT way. I am only talking to her so much now because I just met her. She's really cool you know. I'm kinda disappointed that I just now met her. I only want to be her friend, nothing more." Inuyasha sighed.

"Feh, whatever, I don't care." Miroku saw Kagome and waved to her. She saw him and walked over.

"Hey Miroku, hey Inuyasha. What's up?"

"Just eating...and waiting for you."

"Really? Why?" Miroku laughed.

"So I could sit by my friend."

"Oh." She blushed from embarrassment. She took a seat and began eating. She looked up and noticed Inuyasha was standing next to the table, staring into space.

"You know Inuyasha, you could just sit down." He came back from his own little world and took a seat next to Miroku.

"So, how did you guys do on the bio test? It was a killer." "Well after last night it didn't really seemed that hard. Studying with you guys sure helped me a lot." Said Kagome.

"Yea that helped me a lot also, we should do that more often." Said Miroku.

Inuyasha just shrugged. "I don't think it helped that much, but I didn't have a clue what we were doing from the start." Kagome was about to say something when...

"Inuyasha! Where have you been? I have been looking all over for you."

"Kikyo, oh, well I have been eating with Miroku and Kagome."

Kikyo turned to the other two and sneered. "Why are you two hanging around with this wench?"

Miroku and Inuyasha both stood up angrily. "Never call Kagome a wench, ever!" Inuyasha yelled.

"You have no right Kikyo!" said Miroku. She stared at them. And began crying.

"I didn't mean to. It's just that she stole you both away from me!" She got out between sobs. She ran away. Inuyasha and Miroku stood there a moment. Inuyasha hated to see Kikyo upset like that.

"I have to go to her."

"Inuyasha no!" Miroku was too late. Inuyasha already started running after her. Miroku turned to say something to Kagome but found that she wasn't there. He turned around. No sign of her. 'Where could she have gotten to so quickly?'

He asked some students sitting near by and they said she ran off out of one of the doors and pointed to it. Miroku began in that direction.

He couldn't find her. He walked outside in the school's courtyard and sat under a tree. 'Why can't Inuyasha see through Kikyo? She is obviously up to something. But what? If I could expose her to Inuyasha then...then he won't get hurt. I just know she wants to hurt him. I just can't figure out how. Did he have to love her so much? I bet she knows that. That little bitch is taking advantage of it. Earlier I thought Inuyasha might have just let her run away and comfort Kagome. Kikyo knows his weaknesses and she is being cruel to him. Man I hope she gets out of his life soon.'

He decided to skip the rest of his classes. He got up and began walking to a café. It was a nice day. He noticed that there were a lot of people outside. 'It's nice that so many people are outside, but with so many people, something bad is bound to happen before the day is over.' He sighed and continued walking down the street. 'Kagome...why did Kikyo affect you so much? You are too nice for that kind of treatment. Come to think of it, you are so nice that I don't even try anything with you. I would feel so horrible if I did.' Then he realized where she had probably gone off to.

End of chapter two

How'd you like? Plz review! I really wanna know what ya'll think about it! The good, bad and ugly!


	3. Weird

And this is the last chappie that I have editted so far...but I'm pretty sure the rest are all good!!

Chapter three:  
  
Inuyasha was still chasing after Kikyo. 'Damn, I didn't know Kikyo could run that fast.' He turned round a corner, and there she was crying on a bench. Inuyasha hated seeing Kikyo like this. He loved her with all his heart and seeing her like this hurt him immensely. "Kikyo" He pulled her into a tight embrace.  
  
"Inuyasha" she cried into his chest while Inuyasha thought of something to say.  
  
"Kikyo...Kikyo, why did you call Kagome that? What did she ever do to you?" There was a silence. Kikyo was still crying into Inuyasha' s chest. "Kikyo?"  
  
"Inu...Inuyasha...I didn't mean to upset you."  
  
"I know that, but why did you want to upset her?"  
  
"I...I, well." She paused. "I thought that maybe, maybe she would try to do something with you." Inuyasha wore a face of confusion.  
  
"Kikyo, why would Kagome want to do that to you?"  
  
"Because...because she never did like me. I think she has always been jealous of us. I think that inside, she always wanted to destroy our relationship." She sniffed. "I think she is mad at me because we keep getting closer, and she wants what we have." Inuyasha was silent. 'Could Kagome be jealous? Us...Kikyo and I...we have got a good thing going for us, maybe this is why she has always hated Kikyo...'  
  
Miroku was walking to the newspaper office. He thought Kagome would most likely go there. 'She wouldn't go home because that's where her mother is, so she must have gone off to the office because then she could have a little privacy.' He walked into the building and the secretary looked up at him.  
  
"May I help you?"  
  
"Yes...Did Kagome Higurashi come through here?"  
  
"Not since this morning when she brought you." She turned back to her work. He thought for a moment. 'I don't really know her all that well. Who does?' Then he got an idea.  
  
"Miss, is Sango working right now?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Well. May I speak with her." The secretary gave the teenager a quizzical look, but that didn't seem to faze him at all.  
  
"Look kid, I don't know who you are, but you aren't  
even supposed to be in this building. If you weren't so chummy with Ms, Higurashi, you would have never even seen the trashcans." Miroku gulped at the harsh words being thrown at him. He was about to turn and walk away when he saw Sango exit one of the elevators. He ran towards her even though the secretary protested.  
  
"Lady Sango!" She turned toward him.  
  
"Oh hello Miroku. What brings you here?" Then she thought for a moment. "Don't you have school right about now?"  
  
"Long story." He gave Sango a worried look. She suddenly had a worried expression on her face. "Is Kagome alright?"  
  
He raised his hand in the air. "She's okay, but she ran off and I thought she night be over here."  
  
Sango took a moment to think. "Why don't we  
discuss this over lunch, it's been a long day and I haven't eaten yet."  
  
The last bell of the day rung and Inuyasha began walking in the direction of the bus stop. "Inuyashie!" He felt a grip on his left arm. He turned and saw the face of Kikyo. She looked very happy and that comforted him. "So, Inuyasha? Where are we going tonight?"  
  
He raised an eyebrow. 'What does she mean by that?' Then it clicked. "Um, well maybe we could go somewhere like Chok's."  
  
"Oh, well that sounds nice. So when are you going to pick me up?"  
  
"Um...how about some time around six?" She smiled when the bus arrived and they rode home.  
  
As soon as Inuyasha got home he decided to right Kagome E-mail. It seemed like one of the few safe ways to keep in touch with her over the years.  
  
He typed: Hey Kag. What's up?? Sorry bout earlier, but well Kik is my gf and all. Sry 4 wat she called u, she promised not 2 do it again. So...4give me? ---Inu.  
  
He hoped that she would read it. He decided he wanted to be in his hanyou form before the date, just to get used to it when he could. He felt strength run all through his bones. He liked being a hanyou much more then a human as far as his strength went.  
  
Suddenly he began hearing things he couldn't before. He could hear children playing even though they were about five blocks away. He liked the abilities his hanyou form gave him. That's when he heard...  
  
Not a complete cliffie, this chappy ain't near ova yet!  
  
Right now it was about three o'clock. Sango and Miroku had finished eating their lunches and were now discussing the problem over a cup of coffee.  
"So what you are saying, Miroku is that she left school and you followed her."  
  
He pursed his lips. "Well actually, I went where other students claimed to see her go. I never actually saw her leave. I thought she might have been with you and that's why I was at the office."  
  
Sango nodded her head and took a sip of her coffee.  
  
"So now you want to find her and you think I am the only other person that might have the slightest idea of where she might be?" He nodded. 'Poor Kagome, I feel so sorry for her. Inuyasha is the only friend besides myself that she is able to talk to. What is she supposed to do now that she doesn't feel comfortable around one of us? Well, it's good to know that Miroku is now her for her. Unfortunately I don't think she has had the time to fully trust him yet.'  
  
She looked into her mug. The dark liquid rippled as her breath touched it. She sighed. "Miroku, because you seem to care so much about Kagome I will tell you this much." She paused for a moment. "Kagome tells me a lot about Inuyasha. They seem to be very close friends. I've never met him, but he is very lucky to have a friend like Kagome. From what she tells me, Inuyasha is her only real friend and lately he hasn't been doing a very good job. Now she never actually told me about the job part, but obviously they are close and she doesn't seem to have anyone else. But apparently she trusts you. You are the first person she has ever told about her job to. She likes to keep things private, she never even told Inuyasha about it. I just want to let you know that once you gain Kagome's trust, you better watch out for her. She's lonely and doesn't have the best home life. Because she is so private she will never tell Inuyasha anything, I know it. I can tell she's scared to tell him about the mistakes she thinks he's making. This Kikyo girl has given her lots of trouble in the past." She gave Miroku some time to think.  
  
"So that means that it isn't a new thing? I mean dealing with Kikyo." Sango nodded. "...And I guess that means she never told Inuyasha." She nodded again. "So maybe I should tell Inuyasha about this..."  
  
"NO!" He raised his eyebrow at the sudden outburst. "Look Miroku, Kagome...she is having trouble communicating with Inuyasha. She doesn't want to ruin what Inuyasha and Kikyo have going. From what I hear, they seem very close."  
  
"Well, really Inu is the only one who is really into it."  
  
Sango raised an eyebrow. "How is that?"  
  
"Well...I can't be sure but...well lately it seems like she's plotting something."  
  
"DO you mean like she's lying to him about something?"  
  
"More like taking advantage of him. She knows he adores her and she's using him. I think she's going to hurt him, but I don't think he'll listen. If I tell him something like that he'll confront Kikyo about it and she will tell him that I'm jealous... she'll say I think she's stealing my best friend or something and I'm out to destroy their relationship. I guess the worst part is, is that he'll believe every word of it."  
  
"Well that could be to your advantage."  
  
"What do you mean MY advantage?" He asked confused.  
  
"Well, Inuyasha seems really naïve, you see from what I know of him he wouldn't believe Kagome.  
  
He'd think she was jealous right? And he wouldn't believe you either for the same reason, right? Well maybe if he sees that both you and Kagome don't like Kikyo he'll realize something is wrong with her."  
  
"But she'll just say we are both jealous!"  
  
"Well, you should at least give it a shot."  
  
"It won't work, he's hanging on her every word."  
  
Sango thought for a moment. "Miroku, have you ever thought that Inuyasha might have a crush on Kagome?"  
  
"What? He is in mad love ('mad love' lol, doesn't that sound so goofy? I think that comment belongs in a different decade than this story though...) with Kikyo!"  
  
"Miroku...that doesn't necessarily mean anything."  
  
He raised an eyebrow. She continued. "She seems rather fond of him. I don't know how much she likes him, I'd have to see them together but I can't do that. I don't think Kagome will be ready to introduce us any time soon, but you, you are around both of them a lot, or at least you could be."  
  
Miroku now had a smirk on his face. "Now I know what you mean. Now that I think about it, Inuyasha just might have a little crush on her. He was really mad for a second when he thought that I might like her." He laughed. "But I don't really know how Kagome feels. I have only seen them together twice and it seems that she thinks of him as more of a big brother. Maybe Inuyasha is just over protective of her?"  
  
"Well we'll just have to see." Sango smiled. They walked out of the café and walked down the street. It was almost five o'clock. They had been chatting for longer then they imagined. They were going to the park to look for Kagome when...  
  
Kagome was sitting on a bench. She was on the levee so she had a beautiful view of the lake. Before she had left the school grounds she had grabbed her camera and she was just going to take a picture when she heard children shouting.  
It wasn't like what kids do when they play tag, it was like they were scared or in pain. She stood up and ran towards the noise. She finally stopped on Cypress Lane. It was in just a few blocks north of her house, which put it right in between her house and the park. What she saw horrified her.  
  
There was a child on the ground with blood dripping from his mouth. She assumed he was the child screaming. She saw some other people slowly gather around the block. She ran to the child and put him in her arms. His red hair was shining in the afternoon sun. "Are you okay? What happened to you?"  
  
He was crying softly but managed to say, " I am okay. My tummy hurts a little, but that's it. I was playing with my new baseball. My daddy just got it for me a few days ago. All of the Cubs players had signed it. Some guy in all black took it from me. I want my ball!" He burst out crying.  
  
'Who would do this to such a sweet child?' Kagome thought then she also began to cry. Someone called the paramedics and the crowd began to lessen.  
  
Miroku and Sango had just arrived. They were out of breath because they had run past quite a few blocks. They saw Kagome and ran up to her. "Kagome what happened?" Sango ran up to her and knelt by her side. Miroku walked up in front of her.  
  
"We've looked all over for you." She smiled at her friends and told them the story as she waited for the paramedics to take the small boy in her arms.  
  
They had been waiting for about ten minutes when an ambulance and two police cars stopped near them. Just as they put the small boy into the ambulance there was a loud thud. Everyone turned around to see a man in all black lying on the street and a retreating figure with silver hair.  
Kagome quickly grabbed her camera and took a few pictures before the figure was out of sight. They all turned back to the man.  
  
"That's him! That's him! That's the man that took my ball!" cried the young boy. He jumped off the stretcher and dug in the unconscious man's pockets. "Here it is!" He held the baseball and smiled madly.  
  
Sango came up to the boy. "So little man, do you want to be in the paper tomorrow morning?" He nodded his head vigorously. "So what's your name?"  
  
"Shippo! I think I found my new hero, DOGMAN"  
Then he made muscleman poses and everyone around him laughed.  
  
The three of them: Kagome, Miroku, and Sango all said their goodbyes and went thier separate ways.  
  
Kagome walked in her house to find her mother in the same position she was in last night. She shook her head and sighed. She went to the basement to produce her pictures. That's when she her footsteps on the stairs behind her...  
  
Inuyasha quickly ran off after dropping the robber by the police. 'Was that Kagome?' (Okay, so he hasn't quite memorized her scent yet, he's new at the whole being a hanyou thing) He walked into the house and stood face to face with an emotionless Sesshoumaru. "What do you want?"  
  
"Inuyasha, I take it you haven't seen the paper yet this morning." Inuyasha raised an eyebrow.  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sesshoumaru held up the page with Inuyasha' s picture on it.  
  
"Well no one recognized me, I mean no one told me anything today, and it shows enough to prove that I am a hanyou." Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow and walked to his room. Inuyasha just grunted and went up to his room to take a nap. Crime fighting can be tough work.  
  
Sango opened the door to her apartment and took in a deep breath. "Ah...peace, finally. She dropped onto her couch and turned on the TV. Nothing was on so she turned it off and walked to her desk on the other side of the living room. "I guess I could just start writing tomorrow's article."  
  
She started writing a few of the details: quoting Shippo, describing the situation, and mentioning how, once again the silver haired stranger ran off just like before. "So now all I really have left to do is come up with a name for this guy. I think he isn't going to be leaving us anytime soon." She thought about him for a while. Then she raised her hands in front of her face as if she were framing the space in front of her. "Dogman: A hero for us all...or Dogman: A protector of this new day and age" She kept spilling out different titles of the same sort.  
  
Miroku walked to his house. He kept thinking of his friends' situation. "But how will I ever convince Inuyasha that Kikyo' s bad news if he thinks she's an angel!" He raised his hands in forfeit and slapped them on the sides of his legs. He opened the front door and saw his father sleeping on the living room rug. He gave him a look of disgust.  
  
Once he was in his room he jumped on his bed and stared at his walls. They were covered with pictures of women in (let's just say, interesting) poses. He stood up and tore them all off the walls. Why you ask? Well because... (Hmmm...y is it that Miroku did this...maybe he would rather see... idk...someone else?)  
  
Kagome turned as soon as she heard the steps on the doorway. When she recognized whom it was, a frown formed on her face. "What do you want Naraku?"  
  
The figure stopped. "Why Kagome I'm hurt. What's so wrong about a father coming to see his daughter?" A strange light flashed in his eyes as he walked closer to Kagome.  
  
"One: You are not my father! Two: I am not your daughter, and Three: I know you're up to something so tell me now!" She demanded.  
  
He smirked. He took a step forward and Kagome took a step back. They continued this until  
Kagome felt the wall behind her.  
  
She was trapped! Cold sweat began forming on her brow as Naraku continues walking towards her.  
  
"Get away from me!"  
  
He pushed her shoulders against the wall. She was breathing heavily as his face inched closer and closer to hers. His breath sent a cold chill down her spine. She winced as his lips brushed against her own. She wanted to vomit right then and there.  
  
He noticed how uncomfortable she was and his smirk became wider. He was inching closer and closer to her face once more, and then he spun them around so that he was now against the wall and she could get loose. She forced herself out of his grasp and was going to run when she heard the sound of glass breaking.  
  
She stopped dead in her tracks and looked up the stairs. Her mother stood there with a broken wine bottle. From all the way down the stairs Kagome could see the fire in her mother's eyes.  
  
"You slut! First you kiss on some boy from school and now you are forcing my husband to kiss you!"  
Kagome could feel the tears forming in her eyes. "But Momma he was" she was interrupted.  
  
"Don't 'but momma' me young lady. You know you are just upset because I caught you in the act! How dare you disrespect me or your father like that!"  
  
She ran down the stairs and slapped Kagome across the face. The tears ran down Kagome' s cheeks as she headed up the stairs and locked herself in her room. She ran in her dark closet and cried herself to sleep.  
  
demonspawn666  
  
So I got a pen name on animespiral. I'm have more reviews for this story over on that website and I only had 3 chapters posted. You all make me very mad!!!1 Plz review!  
  
And there it is... Chapter three... you like it? Isn't it so...happy? Naraku really creeps me out! Wouldn't it suck to have a stepdad like him?? Ewww............  
Review PLz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I even updated early! I know ya'll are reading this!


	4. Chapter FOur

Chapter Four:

Kagome woke up early that morning when she heard Naraku' s car pull out of the driveway. She sighed in relief. She then jumped up and ran towards the basement. She couldn't let Sango down because of her family troubles. She developed the pictures and ran back to her room to get ready for school. Her shoulders were bruised so she had to cover them up. The bruises almost went down to her elbows. Fortunately, it was chilly out so she could cover them up without it looking very suspicious. She wore a lavender colored sweater with a pair of blue jeans. She picked up the pictures, grabbed her school bag, and put on her white Reeboks. It was even earlier then usual as she walked to the newspaper office. "Kagome, is that you?" She turned around and saw Miroku right behind her. He was walking next to Shippo.

"Miroku? Shippo? What are you two doing here?"

"Well, Lady Sango wanted to interview Shippo about last night and asked me to bring him. She waited until now because she didn't want to make Shippo answer questions when he was still feeling bad. I guess she was lucky that Shippo actually got up so early." Kagome smiled at the boy and held out her hand to him.

"So Shippo, how are you doing?"

"Fine Kagome!" They all walked together to the newspaper office.

"So Kagome, were you leaving so early?" She hesitated to answer.

"Um...nothing, I just woke up a little earlier than usual." They walked the rest of the way in silence.

Inuyasha woke up the same time as always. He put on a white muscle shirt with red stripes. He practically jumped down the stairs. "Good morning Sesshy!" He skipped into the kitchen and grabbed a Pop-tart. He began eating it when his brother began speaking.

"Why the good mood Inuyasha?"

"What I can't be in a good mood? Is it some kind of crime?" Sesshoumaru grunted and turned back to the book he was reading. Inuyasha really didn't know why he was so happy. Maybe it was because he actually slept well last night. He went back to his room and got his backpack.

"Good thing I did all my homework at class." He walked outside. He didn't see Kagome so he sat on his porch and decided to wait for her. He sat outside for about five minutes and there was still no sign of her. He was worried but he decided to walk to the bus stop. 'It isn't like we plan to walk together. Maybe she left with out me.' He shrugged his shoulders and waited for his bus.

The three of them went to Sango' s cubicle and Kagura the secretary didn't give them any trouble. She finally got used to the fact that there would be a lot of uninvited guests for Sango and she wouldn't be able to stop them. Kagome pulled out a chair for Shippo while she and Miroku just stood there. "So Shippo, how old are you." She asked.

"I am nine years old." She smiled.

"So, what did your parents say when you saw them yesterday?" Miroku asked out of curiosity.

"Well, my foster mom hugged me, but my daddy was to busy to bother."

"Oh." The teenagers replied simultaneously. There was an awkward silence until Sango finally arrived.

"Hey guys! Miroku thanks for bringing Shippo. Shippo you ready? Kagome, how are you? Did you get the pictures from last night developed yet?"

"You are welcome."

"Yes ma'am."

"Good, and yea here they are." She handed Sango the pictures.

"Oh Kagome these are excellent." She gave Kagome a quick hug.

"Well Miroku, Kagome you guys can go to school now. I called Shippo' s parents and I'm dropping him off when the interview is over." They said goodbye and then they left.

Miroku and Kagome walked down the street in silence. "So..." Miroku started that ever so productive conversation.

"Well? What's up?"

"So Kagome...just wondering...do you possibly like Inuyasha?" Kagome looked at Miroku.

"Of course I like Inuyasha, he kinda is my best friend." She smiled at Miroku.

"Well, that isn't exactly what I meant."

"Then exactly what DO you mean?"

"Well...do you like him as more then a friend?" Kagome stopped dead in her tracks.

"Well of course!" Miroku looked at her with surprise written all over his face. He thought she might but he never expected her to be that straight forward about it.

"Y-you do?"

"Well of course I do, he's like family. I don't know what I'd do without him." Miroku calmed down a bit. 'Okay, so he might seriously like her, but she doesn't LIKE him.'

"So Miroku, the first day I talked to you... you said you had a job." He nodded. "So exactly what so you do?"

"Oh, well I um...work at a hospital. I'm kinda a part time male nurse." 'AHH!! I just told her that!!!! I never told anyone that before. She's smiling! Oh my God, she's going to laugh at me!' Miroku was sweating nervously.

"That's so sweat Miroku! I never knew I guy who was willing to do that kind of job to help their family."

"Really?" 'Well that went better than I thought it would...' They walked to the school in silence. When they got there they saw dozens of posters and ribbons all through the halls and in the courtyard. It was a very beautiful sight.

"Wonder what all the decorations are for?" Kagome absent mindedly asked.

"Well...they just might be for the winter ball like they all say in REALLY big letters." Miroku said sarcastically. She laughed.

"Okay, so now I feel really stupid." They laughed and went to class.

Inuyasha had just arrived at school. Miroku wasn't there so he figured that he walked with Kagome. 'Why would they both leave early without telling me?' He was a little mad, but he decided to just go to class and ask them about it while they were at lunch. He saw at least one of them in all his classes, but he never got the chance to even say hi. There were a lot of projects and homework going on since it was near the end of the semester so for once the teachers were being really strict and wouldn't let them talk or anything.

It was lunchtime. Inuyasha could finally talk to Miroku and Kagome. He saw them sitting at a table near the back of the cafeteria and began walking in their direction but was stopped by a VERY angry Kikyo. "Inuyasha how could you do that to me!" He was silent. 'What'd I do this tim-oh! Oh no! I totally forgot about our date last night! Shit!'

"Kikyo I, I am so sorry you see I" SLAP (Ouch that had to hurt.) Kikyo then stormed off. 'Maybe I should follow her. No wait, if I do that...uh I just don't know.' He sighed and walked towards Kagome and Miroku only to his surprise...

Miroku and Kagome were eating there lunch when Houjo walked up to them. He sat down across from Kagome and she turned her head to face him. "Hey Houjo."

"Hey Kagome! I was just wondering if...if"

"If what Houjo? You can come out and say it." She urged him to finish his question.

"Kagome...would you like to go to the Winter Ball with me?" Kagome just sat there for a moment. 'Well I guess I could always go with him...I mean who else? But, well then he might get the idea that I like him or something and then, well I don't like him in that way so maybe I should just say no now so I don't hurt him later on...' Miroku could see Kagome contemplating the question. He somehow knew she really didn't want to go with Houjo even though he didn't quite know why. Houjo seemed to be nice enough.

"Um...sorry to break it to you, but she can't." Houjo and Kagome both looked at Miroku with a confused expression.

"Why not?" Houjo asked.

"Because she is going with me. Sorry, but we just kinda set those plans up before you got here." Houjo looked a little embarrassed. He hadn't realized that those two were getting so close. Which they weren't but he doesn't know that.

"Oh, well then sorry to bother you two. Um...by Kagome." But little did Miroku and Kagome know that Inuyasha was right behind them and had no idea what was now going on. 'I can't believe this! He said they were just friends. He didn't have to lie to my face like that!' Inuyasha stormed off. Kagome turned to Miroku her eyes were the size of saucers.

"Wha...what did you say that for?" She was a little pink, but Miroku didn't notice.

"Well I could tell you didn't want to go with him so I helped you out." "Oh" she sighed with relief. "Well, if you want, we really can go together." She stared at him I confusion. 'Does he mean what I think he means? Go on a...' Miroku turned red at her stare.

"Just as friends of course." "Oh yea, friends, of course." She laughed. 'Ffeeew. For a moment there I think she meant like a real date. Guess it won't be so bad though, I mean going to the dance with a friend will be fun, then I can dance with a bunch of different girls and my 'date' won't get mad at me. I mean, there's only one girl I really want to go with, but that won't be able to happen...' 'Feeew for a moment there I thought he might have meant a date or something.'

"Well, thanks Miroku, it was nice of you do that, I only wish you could have had a real date for the ball."

"What do you mean? Of course I have a real date. I mean it is a date, but friends can go on dates. It doesn't have to mean anything. And besides...that way I can dance with tons of girls and my date won't get mad." THONK

"I should have known it wasn't all for me, but hey what was I expecting?" She walked off.

Kagome had a boring time the rest of the day. She was alone in all of those classes. When the final bell rang she walked to the Newspaper Office without waiting for Miroku. 'Maybe this way he and Inuyasha can start spending time together again.'

Miroku walked towards the door. It was a beautiful day. He no longer liked that. Last time it was a beautiful day Shippo got beat up. He had gotten pretty close to the little kid this morning. Miroku had always wanted a younger sibling, but his father blew those chances out of the window long ago. He stared off in space for a while when an old friend nudged him on the shoulder. "Riding the bus or what?" He scratched the back of his head and looked for Kagome. "She isn't here. Must have left without me.'

"Yea, sure."

Miroku got on the bus. He walked to his normal seat in the back. Inuyasha was already there, but he was staring off into space. In fact, Miroku noticed that Inuyasha almost seemed to be ignoring him. He shrugged his shoulders and began talking to some of his friends that he had kind of ignored for a few days. All they wanted to talk about was the Winter Ball and who they were going with. No one asked Miroku about his date and he decided to say nothing about it. He hadn't known Kagome but for a few days, but already he knew she didn't want to be noticed.

"Hey Inuyasha, why aren't you talking?" He poked his friend's shoulders. Inuyasha didn't turn around. "Inuyasha, are you okay?" Inuyasha was quiet. Miroku grabbed his shoulders and spun him around. Inuyasha looked pissed. He was glaring at Miroku. "Inuyasha what's your problem?"

"What's my problem? WHAT IS MY PROBLEM!" He yelled. Miroku raised his eyebrow. "My two best friends ignore me. Then I find out that they are going out together! Miroku, you said you didn't like her! I trusted you!" The bus stopped. Inuyasha got out of his seat and walked down the isle. Miroku sighed. 'What's his problem? We're not going out! But wait, how did he even know about- wait he thinks we're actually! Agh!' By the time Miroku was done contemplating with himself the bus stopped at the hospital where he had to go to work. As for Inuyasha: That wasn't his stop but he really didn't care. Now he had to figure out what to do about...

Kagome walked into the cubicle. Sango was busy typing and didn't notice her walk in. "So, how'd they like your article?" Sango spun around quickly. She was a little scared because she wasn't expecting Kagome to come so soon. She smiled. "They loved it! Kagome the stories are new and exciting. If we can keep this up we'll be front page. The boss wants to put your name by your photos, but I told him that you should have your say in this." Kagome smiled. Someone liked her pictures! "So where is Miroku?" Kagome raised her eyebrow.

"Miroku? Were you expecting him?"

"Oh, well I just figured he would since he has been so often lately." Kagome wasn't sure but she thought she might have seen some disappointment on Sango' s face.

"So, any new assignments?"

"No not yet. If you can find Dogman and take some pictures then there will be or if not than something around the city." Kagome nodded her head and took a seat across from Sango. She sat in silence for a few seconds and then sighed. Sango looked up from her work.

"So...what's up kido?" Kagome sighed again.

"Well...I don't know." Sango stared at the teenager before her. Something was definitely on her mind Sango just couldn't find out what. 'Hmm...What's coming up in the next few weeks? Maybe we could talk about that.'

"Um...so Kagome, winter is almost here...dose your school have any special dances coming up?" By Kagome' s expression Sango could tell she asked the right question. Kagome had suddenly repositioned herself in the chair and brought her eyes to Sango' s face.

"Well...yeah. The Winter Ball is coming up in a few weeks. It will be formal. It's supposed to be in the gym."

"So...do you know who you will be going with?" Kagome stared at the ground for a while.

"Well, I am going with Miroku." Sango was very shocked by this news. 'Didn't he want her and Inuyasha to be together?' "But, I don't know. You see, this Houjo guy was asking me out, but I didn't want to go with him."

"Why not? I thought you said you liked that guy." Kagome sighed.

"Well I did like him, but I guess now that he actually asked me to do more then be walked home by him, I no longer find him all that interesting. Besides, Miroku and I are just going as friends, no big deal."

"Well that's good I guess." 'Well I guess that is good, I thought for a minute there Miroku might like her.' They sat in silence for a moment. It was getting late so Kagome decided to walk home. It was a nice day. She smiled as she passed children playing kickball. She was a few feet when she saw Inuyasha open his front door.

"Hey Inuyasha!" She waved her hand. Inuyasha just walked back into his house. 'Guess he didn't hear me.' She thought to herself. She turned back to her front door and what she saw made her wish she had stayed at the office. It was...

Inuyasha was about to go for a walk when he saw Kagome in front of her house. He was mad at her. He quickly turned around and walked back into I his house. He heard her call to him right before the door closed. The fact that she called to him like nothing had happened made him very angry. He mumbled something about backstabbing, secretive friends. Obviously he wasn't in a very good mood. He ran up into his room and grabbed his System of a Down CD. Loud music got his mind off of anything and he thought that it might just calm his nerves quite easily. He liked rock like this, but he didn't get much opportunity to listen to it. Kikyo didn't like it very much so she tried to get him interested in pop. She didn't do a very good job though, speaking as he now appreciated rock even more. As he listened to the songs he tried to get his mind off of all the current events such as the whole Kagome and Miroku thing. It didn't work. He realized how much both of his closest friends loved this CD. Sometimes when Kagome came crying into his house after a fight with her mom, the two of them would sit on his floor and listen to this particular CD. He and Kagome always did have a lot in common. Then he thought about Miroku. Inuyasha didn't meet Miroku until the eighth grade, but the two of them had become quick friends. They both had somehow become preppy, but they really weren't that way underneath it all. The two of them went to a System of the Down concert in the tenth grade. That was just a year ago when they were, for the first time, best friends. They had gotten in so much trouble in that one weekend then they ever had any other time in their short lives. Inuyasha was getting really depressed. The two people he was closest to now seemed to be the furthest away. He turned off the CD and stared at the ceiling. "Please God, tell me why this had to happen to me!" Inuyasha really depended on his friends, on Kagome and Miroku. His parents have been gone, dead, for a few years now and all he had left of his family was Sesshoumaru. Sesshoumaru was very helpful to Inuyasha, but he was so emotionless that the two brothers could never become close. His friends were his life. Somehow he felt that if those two had each other, he had nothing. He felt a deep hole inside of him. Miroku was the only sane friend around him most of the time. And Kagome...there was just something about Kagome that Inuyasha needed, needed very badly. As he was thinking about this he heard a strange noise: which made him...

Kagome looked up the steps of the porch only to see Naraku smiling at her. "Seems to me your little friend doesn't care for you any more. I mean he couldn't even take the time to tell you hello." He took a few steps down the porch. "Dear Kagome, I would never hurt you like that." Kagome's eyes were wide with surprise.

"Exactly what are you getting at Naraku?" He smirked at her trembling body.

"Only to have you."

"Never!" She yelled and began running down the street. She felt a tap on her Shoulder while cold sweat formed on her brow. She spun around only to see Naraku staring right at her. She began breathing heavily.

"So, why is it that for once you didn't run to the safety of your neighbor...what's his name? Oh yes...Inuyasha. Are you afraid that he might hurt you?"

"No, he would never hurt me!" From a rooftop only houses away stood Inuyasha. He apparently had heard Kagome yelling. He noticed Sesshoumaru was nowhere to be found so he had decided to check out the situation. He was angered by what he saw. Kagome was trembling in front of that bastard Naraku. He listened to Naraku' s words.

"...Afraid he might hurt you?"

"Never."

"...Never" Inuyasha repeated to himself absentmindedly.

"Inuyasha promised that he would never hurt me!" She yelled at Naraku' s face. Tears were forming around her eyes. 'He also promised he wouldn't allow any body else to hurt me, but it seems there is nothing he can do for me now.' Thought Kagome unaware that Inuyasha was only yards away from the scene. Naraku began to laugh and slowly approached Kagome. She found herself unable to move. He raised his hand to cup her cheek. He inched his face toward hers when...

Miroku was walking down the sidewalk. He had gone to the hospital, but they were training some new nurses so he had off for the next few weeks. He was confused at Inuyasha' s anger. Sure he knew that Inuyasha was very protective of Kagome, he even guessed that he might like her, but he still didn't quite understand his reaction. 'For starters he was the one avoiding us. We told him where we were and he always chose Kikyo over the both of us. He wouldn't even allow me to explain that we were only going as friends. Oh Inuyasha...you can just be so...so...stubborn some times.' He thought when he ran into someone.

"Oh so sorry excuse me Miss...Miss Sango? What are you doing here?"

"Sorry! Oh Miroku it's you. What do you mean 'what am I doing here?' It's a free country isn't it? I was just taking a stroll around the city." He blushed from embarrassment. He didn't mean to sound like he was accusing her or something.

"So Miss Sango...would you like to join me for a cup of coffee?" He didn't know why, but he loved being with her so much. He liked the way she seemed so mature, she seemed much more interesting than the girls that were his age.

"Um...sure I'd love to!" They walked to the nearest café: which only happened to be a few blocks away from where they had bumped into each other.

"So Miroku, what's this I hear about you and Kagome going to the Winter Ball together?"

"Oh why Sango, are you jealous?" He laughed. Sango joined him. She hoped he thought the redness of her face was only caused by her laughter, or he might get the wrong idea. 'What am I thinking? Why does he make me feel so nervous... so unusually happy. Argh! He's almost seven years younger than you!' She cursed herself. 'And besides... the last person you loved...he hurt you. Wait! Love? What am I talking about? I just met him!!' In fact she was scarred. She didn't know how such a nice guy could have done such a horrible thing to her. She thought Miroku was so nice and cheerful, but at the same time he reminded her of all the things that made her sad. The worst part it wasn't his fault, but she would never let him know, she wouldn't want him to feel bad.

"Not quite the emotion I was feeling...it was more like surprise."

"Well, I only invited her so she wouldn't have to go with this other guy. We are only going as friends and that way we can dance with different people every so often."

"Oh how very noble of you."

"Well, I love Kagome, but a friend kind of love, and besides I still want her and Inuyasha to get together." Sango nodded.

"So does he know yet?" Miroku gulped.

"Well, actually that's the problem. He only knows we are going together. He thinks we were like doing something behind his back and didn't give me a chance to explain the situation." He stared at the steam rising from his drink. They both sat quietly for a while until Sango decided to break the silence.

" So, how will you tell him?"

"I don't know. I would just go up to him, but he's so stubborn. He is really good at not listening."

"Well I guess that could pose as a problem." They sat in silence.

"Well I have to go home Miroku. Work tomorrow...nice having coffee with you." She left and went home. Miroku sat for a while, but soon he left also.

"You bastard! Get away from her!" Inuyasha yelled as he jumped to the scene and pulled Naraku away from Kagome. He had transformed into his hanyou form and his voice was gruffer than usual. He hoped Kagome didn't recognize him now that they were mere feet away. HE tackled Naraku and held his hand out to punch him, but Naraku caught it. He smirked.

"So, it's you Inuyasha." He whispered. Inuyasha' s eyes widened. "I think we should take this somewhere else boy, we wouldn't want anyone to get hurt now would we?" Naraku faced Kagome who was staring in shock. Naraku pushed off of Inuyasha and ran down the street. Inuyasha followed him but didn't catch up. HE wanted to run off as far as possible before they start fighting again. He didn't want anyone to hear any of the conversation they might be having.

She just stood there. The two men were practically fighting over her. 'Why?' She couldn't help but ask herself. She stared at their receding figures while a smile slowly formed on her face. 'Dogman is fighting to protect me!' She jumped up in joy and slowly made her way up the porch steps. She couldn't help but wonder what they were whispering to each other though. Naraku had said something and the two of them turned to look at her. 'Wonder what that was about?' She shrugged her shoulders and quietly made it to her room so as not to wake her mother.

So I guess now you people are wondering... 'Is this Kagx Miroku fic?' And I, demonspawn666 assure you, "NO, never, I am not into writing that kinda stuff, so calm down, and if you would have rathered it be mxk, then I ask you...what about Sango and Inuyasha? They have pretty big roles in this story too ya know."

So hope you liked it, plz review. This fic is my baby, the only one that I really know where I'm goin with it. Hope you like, and thanx to all of you who reviewed, I just dont have the time to personally thank you all...or three of you isn't it? Well I hope some new reviewers join this story soon.

Peace!

Aloha!

America currently has 100 Olympic metals...I love my country...and KArli or something like that, from Louisiana, WooHOoo!!! She did awesome. ANd for those of you who didn't know... I personally, am from Louoisiana and it just makes me kinda proud...

Over and out- demonspawn666


	5. Chapter Five!

Lookie! A new Chapter....hope you enjoy, I've actually gone a lot further on my computer, I hust want to make you guys wait for the next chapters, but I'm really proud of myself this time guys! This story is unfolding nicely so plz stik with me out of all the fanfics I've posted as of yet, this was the first one I started!!

Chapter Five:

"How did you recognize me!" Naraku and Inuyasha had stopped by the riverbank. They were fortunate that no one was there. Naraku stared dumbly at Inuyasha. "Hey bastard, I said HOW DID YOU RECOGNIZE ME!" Inuyasha was red with anger. He was pissed at what Naraku was trying to do to Kagome. It was not helping his temper that much when Naraku stubbornly refused to answer his question. Naraku smirked. His dark eyes twinkled in the afternoon sun. HE was enjoying this a lot. Out of anger Inuyasha lunged at the older man. Naraku was very quick. To his surprise Naraku caught him and threw him on the ground. Inuyasha mumbled curses from his dirt filled mouth.

"So...you wonder how I recognized you? In your hanyou form you look just like your pathetic father!" Naraku laughed. "What a wimp, what a pathetic wimp!" Naraku laughed. A red light flickered in Inuyasha eyes. NO one ever made fun of HIS father. HE extended his claws and pounced on Naraku. With one swipe to Naraku' s guts Inuyasha thought he had done it, he had thought that he had finished that evil bastard off, but all he really did was rip his shirt at the back; revealing a spider shaped scar...

Kagome fell back first on her bed. Her room was dark and the house was quiet. Her mom must have moved back to her room. 'When will she ever stop drinking? When will she get rid of Naraku?' She shivered at the thought of Naraku's intentions. 'I can only imagine what a sick bastard like him wanted with me. But I guess that doesn't matter, He saved me!' She became light-hearted when she thought about Dogman. 'He saved me! He was so...so, well I don't know...wonderful! He got Naraku off of me and he chased after him. What a hero, what a guy.' Her eyes glazed as she thought of Dogman. One of the few people, or creatures that she ever thought she could trust. Maybe one day she could actually meet him. Then she wondered if he was a nice person. 'Oh there are just so many questions.' She then drifted off to sleep when...

Miroku walked home with a smile. Sango was so much fun for him. He knew she was older and that she had been through a lot more in life, but he didn't care. He couldn't get his mind off her. 'Something about her...' He was at a street corner when he felt a negative aura coming towards him. He turned in the direction of the force when two blurs quickly flew past him. HE stood dead still and looked around. No one else seemed to notice anything.

'What was that force? Why did it seem familiar?' He decided to follow the quickly retreating figures to see if they were something he should be concerned about. As they got farther away he could see that they were two people quickly running past him. His curiosity got the better of him as he began following the two figures. They were moving very fast so by the time Miroku has finally caught up to them they were having some kind of discussion. One was accusing the other. Miroku could sense that the accused was the one emanating the dark aura because of his spiritual powers. Miroku slowly moved in on them in order to hear what they were saying, but he had reason to believe that they were both dangerous and he didn't want to get injured. The 'dark' man seemed very familiar to Miroku: his face, his hair, and his aura even. He couldn't hear everything but what he made out was: 'HOW DID YOU RECOGNIZE ME!'... '...In your hanyou form you look just like your father...' Miroku saw the anger in the hanyou's eyes. He then saw the hanyou jump at the other person, slashing the back of his shirt: just barely missing the attack of Dogman.

Inuyasha landed roughly on the ground, the ground that should have been Naraku. 'HE couldn't have gotten away could he?' HE looked all around himself. Nothing. He looked down where he had fallen and saw clothes. 'How could his clothes remain here without him?' He picked up the shirt and a something small fell out of the bottom. Inuyasha bent down and picked up a small wooden figure. 'What the?' It almost looked like a doll but Inuyasha knew that it was something more, something much more...

Miroku stared at the hanyou's hands. 'A demon puppet...that could only mean ...Wait! Why would, what does HE have to do with this?' Miroku had seen this kind of puppet before. He was only a young boy and didn't know what was going on, but if he had, his life could have turned out much differently. He noticed the hanyou turn his way. 'Oh no, he sees me!' His eyes widened in horror much like the hanyou's. Dogman dropped the puppet, stood up, and quickly jumped in the direction of the city.

"Shit, shit, shit! Miroku saw me, but did he recognize me?" Inuyasha said out loud as he made his way home. Fortunately he was far enough away that Miroku couldn't hear him. Miroku just stood there. 'Did I know him? He looked so familiar. And was it just me, or did he look worried that I was so close to him?' He thought about the situation for a while, but then he decided it best to just leave it alone. He walked up to where the two men had been fighting. There was the puppet lying carelessly on the ground. He picked it up and put it in his pocket. "No one really needs to see this..." 'So,,, who was that guy with the silver hair? Oh wait, now I remember, he was that Dogman guy, but let's not think of that now...Inuyasha! Man, I really wanted to talk to him.' HE felt bad about what was going on, but at the same time he couldn't figure out why Inuyasha was so upset in the first place. He sighed and began walking home.

Kagome had been sleeping for about an hour when she heard the theme song from the Lord of the Rings. She thought it was her dream until it continued to get louder and louder. She opened her eyes and grabbed for her cell phone. "Hello?"

"Hi Kagome it is Sango, are you okay? You sound bad."

"Oh well I just took a nap."

"Oh okay well good, I was a little worried about you for a second." Kagome was a little confused by those words, but she decided to just let it go.

"So Sango what's up?"

"Oh well I was just wondering, since you have your ball coming up and I have some free time if you wanted to go to the mall tomorrow afternoon to pick up a dress or at least look for one."

"Oh that sounds great Sango! It will be so cool to have someone to go shopping with."

"Well good, so just called for that. DO you want to talk about anything else?"

"Um, well nothing much right now."

"Oh alright, so bye, see you tomorrow!"

"Bye." She hung up the phone and went back to sleep.

He had finally gotten home. HE was tired and wanted to go to sleep. It had been a long, crappy day. His brother was nowhere to be found and he really didn't care. He noticed the morning paper still on the kitchen table. HE hadn't read it yet, and he knew he would regret it if he didn't. He unrolled it and stared in shock at the front page. In bold letters the words 'DOGMAN: A HERO IS BORN' were written on the front page. Right smack dab in the middle there was a picture of his pathetic brother. "Oh Jeez, God I hope no one recognized him!" And that is when Inuyasha walked in the front door. He saw his brother and walked to the table.

"Hey Sesshy, what you lookin' a-at!" His eyes were as wide as saucers as he looked at himself on the front page of the paper. "Um...I made the front page!" He shrugged his shoulders and smiled weakly at his emotionless brother standing right in the front of him.

"Inuyasha, you had better be thankful that the photographer didn't get a close-up of you. If you must help people don't get so close to the cameras! I will not accept it if paparazzi come to my house lookin for you because you were to stupid to hide your face!" Sesshoumaru sighed and Inuyasha went up to his room.

Kagome woke up to the loud beeping of her alarm clock. She was very relaxed for once she really needed that LONG nap. She didn't have any pictures for Sango, but she would have to find something. She grabbed a few select pictures that were already developed. She looked at them for a moment. They were pictures of pigeons. They were on a telephone wire, six of them in a row. Kagome thought it was a cute picture so she decided to bring it to Sango this morning. She threw on a green tee shirt with a pair of black jeans. She slid on her tennis shoes and walked out of her house. She walked out of her door and stared at the house next to hers. Inuyasha' s house. 'Is he mad at me? I am almost positive that he was ignoring me yesterday, but why?' She stared at the house for a while longer, but then she began her walk to school. It was a humid morning and she felt hot. 'Thank God I put my hair up today!' She turned at the bus stop. The place she normally left Inuyasha at. 'Why does it feel so strange every time he isn't there?' She asked herself. It had been a few days since she had last walked with Inuyasha. She missed him. AS she was walking towards the office she felt a tap on her shoulder. She jumped about one foot in the air and quickly spun around to see who it was.

"Oh Miroku, it's you." She sighed in relief. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh I was, was um..." He was looking all around for a good excuse. His face was a little flushed. Kagome raised an eyebrow.

"Miroku?"

"Y-yes?"

"Do you like Sango or something?" Miroku turned a deeper red.

"You do! How cute!" She jumped up and clapped her hands. Miroku laughed nervously.

"Yea I guess..." She wrapped her arms around his as they walked down the street.

"Wow, you know you should tell her."

"Oh well I don't know..."

"Sure you should. Sango would never hurt you, so what harm could be done?" Miroku was silent. "Okay I see. Well do you want to go to the mall with us today? She's going to take me shopping for a dress, for the dance you know." She smiled at him. HE relaxed a bit after the change of subject.

"Sure, I guess." She squeezed his arm as they walked to the office.

Inuyasha woke up a little groggy. He hadn't slept well, there was too much on his mind. "Should I tell Sesshoumaru about Naraku? How did that guy know dad?' He yawned and got ready for school. He put on a brown tee shirt and a pair of carpenter's jeans. When he walked down the stairs he noticed that his brother had already left for work. He grabbed a bagel and walked out.

Once again Kagome wasn't around, but this time he decided to just walk straight to the bus stop. No use waiting for her now. He was still mad at her and Miroku. "Friends...yea right." He snorted and began walking. He reached the bus stop as the bus came. He hopped on and noticed Miroku wasn't there. 'Guess he's walking with his little girlfriend now.' He 'humphed' and sat in his usual seat. He was staring out the window, not really noticing anything the bus passed. His heart stopped when he saw Kagome holding Miroku' s arm. 'What the? How could they?!' Why couldn't his best friends just tell him instead of just allowing him to find out about whatever it was they were doing?

Sango was digging through her desk when Miroku and Kagome walked in her cubicle. "Hey guys!" She pulled open another drawer. The whole thing fell out and papers were scattered everywhere. "Oh well that's just great." She reached down to pick up some papers when she lightly hit Miroku' s hand. "Oh sorry!"

"It's okay." She would never admit it, but she felt a strange sensation run up her arm as their hands met. Miroku felt the same thing. Kagome was picking up papers when she saw a familiar face in a picture.

"Sango, what is this?" She held the picture out to Sango. Sango held it up to her face and a pained look crossed her face.

"Oh this, it's just some creep named Onigumo who has done horrible things for money. He has hired assassins and blackmailed many people just so he could remain the owner of some business. He escaped a few years back and the only thing we could be sure of is the fact that he has this large scar on his back. Strange..." Kagome's eyes widened.

"Oh." She paused for a moment. Miroku stiffened. 'So that's who it is...Why was he fighting Dogman?' She handed Sango the picture. "Well I have to go now." She ran out of the cubicle. Sango rose and eyebrow and turned to Miroku. He shrugged his shoulders.

"I should go follow her." HE said good-bye and went in the same direction that Kagome had gone in.

Sango looked at the picture again and then she shoved it back into a drawer. "...That bastard!"

Inuyasha had just gotten to school and stood in the courtyard.

He was alone. All the other students that were outside were in groups with their friends. He really missed Miroku right now. The two of them would always hang out together when they got off the bus. The rest of their friends always arrived a lot later. He went into a trance for about five minutes. He was just staring at the front of the school. HE heard someone speaking to him and he turned around. Kikyo was glaring at him. He assumed she had just said something. "What?"

"Well hello to you too!" She put her hands on her hips.

"Sorry Kikyo, I'm not a morning person." HE gave her a peck on the cheek.

"I don't like how you have been acting lately Inuyasha. You have been spending a lot of time with that Kagome girl. Don't lie about it, my friends see you with her all the time. Is there something going on between the two of you?" There was worry evident in her eyes. She was angry, but she also seemed sad to Inuyasha. Tears began forming in her eyes. "Inuyasha!" She half yelled. HE yanked her into a hug and put his face in her hair.

"NO Kikyo, nothing is going on between the two of us I promise. I am sorry if it looked that way." Inuyasha felt her pull away from him. She stared at him and smiled. He smiled back.

"Good." He put his arm around her waist and began walking to the school. "So...you want to go to the Winter Ball with me?"

Miroku had finally caught up to Kagome who had been walking quickly down the street. "Hey what's wrong?" HE grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Nothing!" She yelled in his face. She tried to push away from him, but he wouldn't allow that.

"Kagome, you can tell me, what's wrong?" She looked down. "

Nothing, really." Miroku looked hesitant but decided it was best to leave it at that. They walked down the streets in silence that is until Kagome decided to break it. "I guess my problem is that the Onigumo guy in the picture looks just like Naraku, my step dad." Miroku stared at the girl.

"Well, how long have you known him as Naraku? It's possible that he is Onigumo and he changed his name."

"Yea, but what does he want with my mom and me?" Miroku pursed his lips as they continued walking.

"Does he have that weird scar?"

"I don't know. I have never seen his bare back." Miroku nodded and thought about the situation.

"It's weird you know. We are able to change our facial appearances quickly, but something like a scar is so hard to get rid of." HE paused. "I think I saw that Onigumo guy the other day." Kagome stopped walking and looked up at Miroku.

"What do you mean by that?"

Inuyasha sat down in his desk and looked at the empty desk to his right. 'Hey wait a minute, that's Miroku' s desk. Where is he? With Kagome I bet. I might have expected this kind of thing to come from Miroku, but I never thought that Kagome would be into a guy like him.' The teacher cleared his throat in order to get the classes attention.

"Okay class, today we will be discussing..." Inuyasha fell asleep. He never did like school. HE remained motionless until he heard the loud ring of the bell. He jumped out of his desk only to be dragged to the side by the teacher.

"Wha?" Inuyasha asked, still a little groggy from his nap.

"Inuyasha, I have noticed you seem to be pretty close to mister Houshin, do you happen to know why he missed class today?" Inuyasha growled.

"How the hell should I know where that lecher is!" He yelled and stormed down the hall to his next class. He decided to eat his lunch out in the courtyard today. There wasn't anyone to talk to so he might as well be in perfect silence. He happened to look in the direction of the library when he saw Miroku and Kagome come out together. HE couldn't help but eye them suspiciously. Kagome turned in his direction and waved. He nodded his head and the two walked in his direction. 'How can I deal with this? I need them, they are my friends, but their practically betraying me.' The two had reached him and they sat in front of him.

"Hey Inu what's up?" Kagome asked innocently.

"Nothing. Miroku, where have you been all day? You've missed the whole first half." Miroku switched his gaze to the ground.

"I was, was doing a research project with Kagome in the library."

"The teachers let you miss all your morning classes to do research?" Inuyasha raised an eyebrow suspiciously. Miroku gulped and lied right to Inuyasha' s face.

"Yes." Inuyasha didn't believe a word of it, but he decided to keep quiet. He turned to Kagome.

"So what were you two researching?" She looked up to face him.

"The Dayship Picayune." Which was partially true. Kagome had told Miroku about Naraku being chased off by Dogman, while Miroku told Kagome that he saw Dogman fighting what he thought to be Onigumo. They connected two and two and researched on the Internet to see if they could find anything to prove their theory. So their excuse was true enough that Inuyasha couldn't detect a lie. They stared into each other's eyes for a little longer until Miroku decided to clear his throat. Inuyasha and Kagome turned to face him.

"Yes?" Inuyasha asked.

"Well...um...change of subject...did I miss a lot today?" 'Probably just want me to turn away from your little girlfriend.' Inuyasha thought to himself. He would never say it aloud though; he didn't want to offend Kagome, no matter what she did to him.

"No, not really."

"SO are you going to the Winter Ball with Kikyo?" Kagome asked.

"Yea."

"Well that's good." Miroku gave Kagome a suspicious glance. She didn't like that answer and he knew it, but he didn't know how he could possibly change that. There was an awkward silence until the bell rang. They all stood up and went their separate ways.

It was the end of school. The final bell had rung and Kagome made her way out the hall door. She saw Sango' s maroon PT Cruiser. "Oh." She remembered that they were going shopping today. She smiled and walked to the vehicle. The window rolled down.

"Bring your money?" Sango asked.

"Yea." Kagome opened the door and set her bag down. Then she remembered. She pointed her hand in the air. "Oh Sango, is it okay if Miroku comes with us?"

"Sure tell him to come on."

"Well now, two lovely young ladies talking about me? I think I shall faint." Said Miroku in falsetto. He put his hand to his head dramatically and began to bend his knees.

"Hop in kid." Said Sango as she unlocked the back door. He jumped in.

"SO...where we going?"

"To the mall. I'm buying my dress for the ball. You should buy whatever you are wearing too." Said Kagome with much enthusiasm.

"Well I don't quite have enough for a tux at the moment." He replied quickly. The all let out a light giggle. For some reason it was tense. It had been tense all day for some unknown reason. Nothing seemed funny, but they were all determined to make the best of the shopping spree.

Oh the suspense is just killing you, right? Na? Well don't worry, this fic shall stay pretty interesting...and if you happen to like you should feel lucky, out of all my stories, this is the only one with some action in it as of yet. PLz review! I sure need them!!!!!!!!!!

demonspawn666


	6. Mall Mishap

Just to tell you now...if you've read this story before you may notice that some things have changed...The format on some chapters is much better...and the chapters actually have names...don't worry the story hasn't changed at all, it's just been revised!  
  
Chapter Six:  
  
Inuyasha decided walked home. 'I guess right about now I'm just a little curious as to what those two get out of walking all the way home. Who was it that those two left with? No one I know. You know...if I turn into a hanyou I could easily catch up with them and see what they are doing...no. I will not spy on my 'friends'. I'm not the kind of person that would betray friends...unlike them.' So he walked home alone. He was going to turn on his street when...  
  
They were in Sango' s PT Cruiser on the way to the mall.

"So Sango which mall are we going to?" Asked Kagome.

"Well I thought we'd go to the state mall. I know it's farther away then the Dayship Mall, but it has better selection and is a lot more fun to go to." Sango smiled.

Miroku couldn't help but stare at Sango' s face in the rear view mirror. 'She's...she's so beautiful. There is just something I can't name about her. Is it...sadness? Why would she be sad? Why do I like that about her? I admit I am a pervert, but am I so sick that I find sadness attractive?' He frowned at himself.

"Miroku, something wrong? You've been making a bunch of weird faces?" Asked a worried Sango.

"Oh nothing! Just thinking." He put on a perverted smile and Kagome put a hand to her forehead and sighed.

"Miroku...you'll never change." He sighed in relief.

They had finally reached the mall. Sango parked close to JC Penny's "They have nice dresses here that don't cost too much." She explained.

Kagome nodded and smiled.

Miroku blinked. The only reason he was coming was in order to spend more time with the lovely Sango.

They walked towards the door. "I'm so excited." Explained Kagome. "I always imagined I'd have a boyfriend to go to the Ball with, but hey, I guess going with a great friend isn't all that bad!"(Ur...let's say the ball is kind of like your senior prom...something you always look forward too as a kid.) She clasped her hands together as she walked beside Sango. The older woman smiled at the cheery girl.

Miroku, who was walking behind the two women, sighed. 'You have every right to one. If Inuyasha didn't scare most guys away from you behind your back you probably would have one. I wonder how you never managed to find that out...but still...I guess it's good that that mutt is jealous. But even with that, I am so sorry for you Kagome.'

They entered the store. "Well...bye Miroku!" Kagome waved at the boy.

"What? Where are you going? I thought you were looking for a dress!"

"I am, but you can't be here." She smiled sweetly at him.

"Not following you Kagome." He replied.

"Well, even though we aren't going on a real date I still want my dress to be a surprise for you."

"Huh...u...oh...OH! Now I see... Well then...I'm off to the music store." He waved a limp hand and attempted to get out of the maze-like store.

Kagome and Sango then split up and began looking for dresses in Kagome's size. Kagome already knew what she wanted and had told Sango secretly in the morning even though Miroku had been with them the whole time.

It had been about thirty minutes and the two met up by the fitting rooms. "Um...Sango I didn't find anything how about you?"

"You have to be kidding me! I found about ten different dresses like you said you wanted." She showed the girl the several dresses she had found.

"Sango...these are so CUTE!" She squealed.

Miroku was at Gamestop. The music store had been packed and he didn't think it was worth getting crammed in there if he might not buy anything. He walked to the rack of Play Station games and scanned through them. Nothing new...He was about to walk out when he saw his friend looking at magazines.

"Hey what up?" He asked as he walked toward him.

"Hmm? Oh Miroku, nothing much, just looking around." He smiled and looked at Miroku. "What about you?"

Miroku looked around for an excuse. 'Should I tell him?' "Umm...just waiting on someone." His friend nodded and turned his attention to the magazine in his hands.

"So Miroku...who you going to the ball with?" He raised his eyebrows suggestively.

" A friend."

"Well that doesn't tell me much. With that information you may as well be going with Inuyasha...So is it Koharu?" He leaned in, closer to Miroku.

"NO, not exactly."

"Miroku? What's happened to you? You haven't been hanging around with the gang lately and now you're passing up the chance of...um...a night of 'excitement' with a girl that has the total hots for you...Are you sick?" He sent Miroku a confused look.

"Well...you see...my friend doesn't have a date and...and I got my eyes on someone that doesn't go to school with us anyways, so technically, she can't go. A-And besides...this way I can dance with a bunch of different girls and not be stuck with just one." He showed his famous perverted smile.

His friend nodded and mirrored his smile. "Oh...so...is she hot?"

"Um...which one?"

"Your friend dufous!!"

"Well of course."

"Well since she goes to school with us...who is she?" Miroku gulped. 'If I tell him then Kagome will get a bunch of attention that she probably doesn't want...but if I don't...then all my friends will wait especially for me to arrive and they'll all hound her...which one? Which one?' Then he saw Sango standing by the doorway of the store.

He thought quickly. "Um...look...my other friend is waiting on me right now. I'll tell you later." 'Now how do I avoid that guy until the dance...' He waved and walked to the woman. "Hey Sango, where's Kagome?"

"Oh she's buying her clothes."

"SO you left early for some alone time with me?" He added his infamous smile and Sango turned a light shade of pink.(Ooo...someone's feeling a little flustered! )

"No...no...I was told to find you and pick a table at the coffee place." Miroku was a little disappointed by that answer, he knew that he wanted some time for the two of them. He made sure to thank Kagome later...this was obviously a setup.

Kagome had just purchased the dress. She was walking to meet the others when someone stepped right in front of her. She was fumbling with her purse and didn't notice.

'Bump.'

"Excuse you!" 'Oh no.' thought Kagome, she recognized the voice.

"Sorry Kikyo, I didn't see you there." She looked up at a smirking Kikyo.

'I have a feeling she won't let this pass so easy.' thought Kagome.

"So Higurashi...I see you have a dress...to impress Inuyasha huh?"

"No...as a matter of fact I've got a date." She defended.

"Oh, you mean that Miroku guy? I know you two are going as friends. Look Higurashi, Inuyasha is mine so hands off! Stop trying to steal him from me! I'm going to make sure nothing goes wrong at the ball. We are getting really close right now and I will not allow you to ruin it for me-us!" She yelled. 'Great going Kikyo!' She mentally slapped herself for the screw up.

Then Kikyo pulled a pocketknife out of her purse and flipped up the blade. Kagome's eyes widened in shock.

'What does she think she's doing?' Kagome thought to herself. She looked around and no one seemed to notice they were even there. Not a single soul seemed bothered by the fact that Kikyo was holding a knife out. 'Is the world going insane?'

Kikyo walked up to her with knife in hand. She put the point of the blade to Kagome's neck. 'Why can't I move? I want to, but my body isn't listening to me!'

"Now give me the dress and I want hurt you!" demanded Kikyo, her voice dripped with venom.

Kagome was shaking. She couldn't understand what possibly drove Kikyo to become so mad. She lifted up the bag with a quivering hand. "He-here you g-g-go." She stuttered.

Kikyo snatched the bag with her free hand and removed the blade from Kagome's neck.. With cold angry eyes she took the knife and cut through both the shopping bag and the dress. She slashed and sliced the dress. She then let the bag drop. A serene look came upon her facial features. She smiled, folded the blade, and calmly walked away from Kagome.

Kagome stood there stunned for a moment. Her eyes hadn't left the bag since it was in Kikyo' s hands. She bent down and picked it up. The bag was a mess. Bits of the plastic floated down to the ground. She reached for the dress. As she pulled it out she noticed the long cuts and gashes that covered it.

A tear ran down her cheek. 'I can't possibly afford another one! I worked for almost half a year to get that!' She then began crying. She didn't know exactly what upset her so much. So she couldn't go without that dress, but it was just a dance, there'll be plenty others right? Right? And it wasn't like she was going with her boyfriend, just her boy-friend. Miroku could find another date and she didn't have to go, it's not like it would change her social status school-wise if she didn't go. It couldn't possibly get any lower as it was. Why did it bug her so much?

"So...I take it you like video games." Said Sango as they took their seats.

"Um...yea...a little." She looked at the dollop of whipped cream on her drink.

"My brother Kohaku used to love video games." A tear fell from her down cast eyes. "Before he died." She choked on her tears.

Something in Miroku' s eyes softened. 'I know your pain Sango.' He reached out a hand to place on her shoulder. "Come on now, I'm sure he wouldn't want you to cry over him." He tried to present a comforting smile.

"You're right I guess." She agreed. She looked up into his face and smiled. They sat in an awkward silence for a few moments. They didn't know what to talk about.

"Hasn't Kagome been gone for a while?" Miroku realized.

"Your right...maybe something happened to her!" Worry spread across Sango' s face.

"You don't have to worry, I'll go look for her." Miroku stated as he stood up. "It'll be okay Sango, I mean we're at a mall, nothing could happen with so many people around." He gave what he thought to be a comforting smile and walked away quickly.

Everything seemed normal, kids were playing, girls were shopping, seniors were sitting, but then he saw something unusual. There was a girl sitting on a bench besides a torn shopping bag and she was looking at the ground. She seemed very depressed. Miroku had been staring at the girl long enough to recognize her as Kagome. She was a good forty feet away but he was able to recognize her clothes.

He walked up to her and sat o the bench. She jumped up in surprise and saw him. He smiled weakly at her. "Miroku!" She whimpered lightly as she wrapped her arms tightly around him. He would have been tempted to...'touch' her had it not been for Inuyasha.

Miroku had been acting strange lately and he knew why. He also knew that Inuyasha would kill him if he did as much as look strangely at Kagome. He put his left hand on her shoulder and patted her lightly. "It's okay...just tell me what happened." He directed quite patronizingly.

"My dress...it was destroyed." She got out through sobs. "Miroku, I can't possibly afford a new dress! What am I going to do!"

"It'll be okay, everything will work out." He rubbed her back gently. She shook her head 'no' and buried her head in his chest. 'Why am I so upset? I just can't figure it out! Nothing special could possibly happen, so why do I fell like I'll miss something important?'

They sat there for about five minutes until Kagome finally calmed down. "You Okay?" He asked. She nodded her head. "Sango is probably worried about you and pissed at me, she trusted me to find you and come right back."

She rubbed her eyes and stood up. "I think some coffee might do me some good right now." She smiled weakly and began walking to the café where Sango was waiting. As she passed a garbage can she threw what was left of her dress in.

"Kagome! Where have you been? And Miroku! I thought you were going to come back quickly!" Exclaimed Sango while running to hug Kagome. "Thank goodness you are safe!" She pulled Kagome close to her while shooting Miroku a glare.

He put his hands up in defense. "Well, Miroku, our coffees are cold, I guess we just have to get new ones." She walked back to the table and sat down. Kagome and Miroku soon followed.

They all got Hazelnut flavored coffee and sat in a comfortable silence. "So Kagome, I noticed you didn't bring your bag...why is that?" Sango asked emotionlessly.

"Um...someone stole it out of my hands and ran off." She lied. Sango raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips.

"Well that sure stinks." She nodded her head. They drank their coffee in silence.

"You guys ready?" Sango asked as she pushed her chair back.

"Yep."

"Mhmm."

"Alrighty, let's a get going then!" She picked up her purse. They all walked to her car. "So Miroku, where do you live?"

"Hmm?" He asked not really paying attention. "Where do you live? You want to be dropped off right?"

"OH..." He gave her directions.

They pulled up to his house. "Well I had fun today, bye Miroku!" Sango waved from the driver's seat.

"Well Sango, I'm just going to walk from here, my house is only a little ways away."Said Kagome.

"But-"

"Don't worry Sango." She interrupted.

"Oh okay...I guess." Said a disappointed Sango. "Bye guys!" She waved and drove off.

Kagome began walking in the direction of her house. She heard footsteps behind her. She turned to see Miroku following her. "Did I forget something." He put his hand behind his head.

"Well actually I didn't want you to walk the streets alone."

"Why not?"

"Well for starters...I have to talk to you, and secondly if Inuyasha found that I let you walk these streets alone he'd have my neck, and last but not least, if you got hurt I could never forgive myself."

She smiled. "That's sweet Miroku, but why couldn't you forgive yourself?"

"Well Kagome, to be perfectly honest, you have to be the only girl I've ever had as an actual friend. I always flirt with other girls, but we never really get too close, but with you it's different. Thanks to Inuyasha, I mean if I tried to flirt with you, he'd have my neck!"

She raised an eyebrow. "And why would that be?"

'Shit, shouldn't have told her that! Must make up excuse!!!!!'(eheh...ever told yourself that? Like when you accidentally hint to your parents that you did something wrong?...lol) "Um...well he's just so damned protective around you I guess." He shrugged his shoulders. 'Phewf, she believed it!' He sighed In relief. "So...was it Kikyo that destroyed your dress?" He asked.

"I told you, someone stole it from my hands!"

"No, that's what you told Sango, you told me that someone destroyed it. Kikyo is the only person who would stoop so low as to destroy your dress."

"Well..."

"So I'm right? I thought so. Why didn't you tell Sango the truth? I thought she knew about Kikyo."

"Yea, but she just get's to mad when I tell her about stuff like that."

"Oh."

She looked up at him. "Well, since you know that I guess I don't have to hide it from you anymore now do I? I guess I can't go to the dance anymore huh? I hope you can find a better date." She waved and walked into her house, which they had quickly reached.

"Don't worry, we can always get you a new one." Answered Miroku, but then he realized that she had already closed the door and hadn't heard a word of what he said.

He then walked back towards his home. 'This whole Ball thing is making both Inuyasha and Kagome act really weird. I guess I could understand why Inuyasha is so upset, he tends to make a big deal out of everything, but Kagome...She seems to be rather collected. What's bothering her so much? I don't think she's too upset about not going with me, but...well...what other choice does she have? I doubt she ever had a boyfriend with Inuyasha around. Maybe she wanted Inuyasha' s attention. Yea, that's it! maybe she wanted to get Kikyo out of the picture, I mean maybe she really does want Inuyasha. If that's the case then I'll do anything to help her, I want to get rid of Kikyo too. Well, if I know anything, Kikyo is definitely up to something and if I don't stop her I may loose Inuyasha as a friend.' He thought for a moment.

"Hey that's it! I got it! I got the perfect idea!" He shouted. Then he turned to see all the people on the street looking at him as if he were mad. He put his hand to the back of his head and laughed nervously. 'I'm normal guys, I swear!' He thought to himself as he continued walking.


	7. Dealings in the Night Part One

I finally updated!!! Aren't you happy??

Chapter Seven:

Inuyasha was just about to turn on his street corner when he heard the screams of adults. 'What could that be? Normally I only hear little kids and women, but I think I can hear a man's voice also.'

He went through an alley and transformed into his hanyou form. Jumping to the roof of a near by building he listened for the screams again. He was beginning to become worried.

Those screams had been agonizing and now there was silence. He would never forgive himself if he failed to save who ever this was. He had decided a few days ago to help anyone in need so now he was determined to do whatever it took to find the screamers.

"STOP IT!!!" He heard someone scream. Now in his hanyou form he was able to understand what was actually being yelled. He then heard a bang witch he assumed ment that someone just got hit in the head. Once again there was silence. He wasn't quite sure where to go any more, but that's when he saw…

Tsuyu was shopping at the super market. It wasn't in a very good neighborhood and she really didn't want to go in the first place. 'If I was living with mom instead of visiting her, I would never do this for her. Mean ever since she and dad got a divorce after he got the Bergly Case she's been such a wreck. I guess this is the least I could do while she's in such a bad state.'

She slowly shook her head and began looking for the Velveeta noodles her mother had asked for when she felt a hand roughly cover her mouth as another arm grabbed her by the waist and began dragging her to the storage room in the back of the store.

"Rrt rr oo oin ou ee?" She asked.

"Sorry but I couldn't hear you hun." Stated the man. Tsuyu thought he sounded a little feminine.

He released her and she took deep breaths to catch up on breaths. She heard laughing in the dark corner and quickly looked up to see two men staring at her.

"What do you want?"

"You."

"My father is a prominent lawyer in New York, when you get caught your asses will be in jail for so long you'll forget what to-"

"We know that's why we kidnapped you." Replied the feminine one.

The second spoke for the first time. "We understand your father is quit wealthy, and we believe he'll pay a nice ransom for his only child."

Her eyes widened in realization. "But there's always a way to get back at you and he will!" She defended her safety.

"Oh I guess we forgot to mention, we have friends in high places as well. IF, and that's a big IF, you find us we will get away Scot free and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it."

Her forehead wrinkled in a frown. This was all to confusing for her. "So you want money? IS that it? Then take it from someone else!"

The two men laughed at her, then the feminine one replied. "We would, but you are so fun when you're scared." He chuckled in a very unmanly way.

She took a step back and realized that she was by the back door. She could feel the cold knob in her hand. She smirked to herself. She had a plan.

"So what's with the guys behind you?" She asked. They turned around to see what she was looking at when she pushed the door open and ran for all she was worth. When the two men turned around to see she had fooled them.

"Damn, damn, damn now we have to do this outside in the open." They ran out and quickly grabbed her shoulders and pulled her to the ground.

She screamed in shock. 'O god these guys are fast, it took them like 30 seconds to catch up with me!' She began to hyperventilate.

"Ha, Bankoutso I think she's getting a little nervous." Squealed the feminine one.

"Jakoutsu, we don't get paid unless she's alive and well, we have to make sure she's alright." He came down to her and tried to calm her down.

"Don't think I don't notice how you look at her." Said Jakoutsu as he crossed his arms across his chest.

"What the hell are you complaining about now?"

"See, see that's it, you don't care about me. What is it that you see in women anyways, it's not like they are THAT great." He shot Bankoutso an accusing finger.

Bankoutso shook his head and turned his attention back to the girl.

"Let go of her! Let go of Tsuyu!" cried an approaching voice. They turned around to see a boy about her age.

"Nobunaga! Help ME Please!" Tsuyu shouted. The boy ran up to his love.

Nobunaga was your average high school student. He made average grades, he was an average height, and he had you average child hood crush. Tsuyu.

The two had grown up together as next-door neighbors. They had been best friends, but soon Nobunaga had developed a crush on her.

It was tragic to him when her parents got divorced. Her father moved to a mansion as her mother moved to an apartment.

Tsuyu' s personality changed. She was not depressed, she was just different. She had stopped talking to him and began hanging out with a new group of friends.

Even if her feelings had changed for him, his feelings for her had definitely not. He was still in love with her. He still loved her when she got a boyfriend. He didn't like that, but whatever made her happy, made him happy, that's how he knew he loved her.

He had been walking down the street to his aunt's house, near Tsuyu' s mom's apartment when he heard a scream. He was a good natured guy in general, so of course he was going to help the screaming person, but when he saw the love of his life lying on the alley floor with two strange men surrounding her, he could almost faint.

'Tsuyu!' He thought to himself. "Let go of her! Let go of Tsuyu!" He screamed at the two men.

Tsuyu screamed in agony for him. "Nobunaga! Help me please!" His heart melted when she said his name. She seemed so relieved for the sight of him. He ran up to her and that's when he saw the tire being thrown in front of him.

He stood there at the edge of the alley and saw two men dressed in black staring at two   
bodies on the filthy ground. 'God I hope they aren't hurt!' He silently ran up to the   
standing figures and punched them both in the back of the head. They both staggered   
forward a bit in surprise.

Inuyasha's eyes widened in shock. 'They didn't fall over? What's with these guys? I've never fought anyone who could stand a punch like that.

"Shit!" yelled one of the men in an oddly feminine tone.

"What the fuck?" Said the other as the two spun around to face Inuyasha. "Dogman…hmm so I assume you came here to save the day." Said the second with a smirk.

"You got that right." Said Inuyasha as he lunged forward.

He was surprised when a tire blocked his attack.

"Don't think we'll be that easy to get rid of." Laughed the feminine one. "That is IF you can get rid of Bankoutso and I"

"Jakoutsu' s got that right. Dogman, prepare, for you have no idea of who you are dealing with!" Bankoutso shot forward. He pulled a sword from his side and gracefully, yet quickly, swung towards Inuyasha's neck.

Inuyasha was quick to get away, but couldn't help but notice the strands of hair that had been cut in half. 'Man this guy's almost as fast as me!

Bankoutso smirked. 'I bet he thinks this will be an easy fight for him…what he doesn't know will surely kill him.'

He lunged forward again, but this time Inuyasha was prepared. He jumped on the blade of the sword and hopped towards Jakoutsu. "Iron Raven Soul Stealer!" (A/N Is that what he says? ) He yelled as blades of light flew to   
Jakoutsu.

He dodged, but not with out injury. His ankle was bleeding as the smell flooded Inuyasha's nose. Inuyasha stood for a moment, but then he sensed movement behind him.

'Damn I forgot, there are two of them!' He spun around only to see the blade go through his chest. "Ah" Inuyasha got out and began to cough on the blood that was quickly coming up through his throat.

The two men began to laugh. "Ah Dogman, I   
thought you'd fight smarter than that, without getting yourself killed in a matter of   
seconds.

Inuyasha smirked. "You think it will take that much to kill me? I'm a hanyou, not a human, it'll take a little more than a blade through the chest to stop me!"

The two men stood in attention and faced him. Sure his appearance was not of a human, but   
they did not imagine he was hanyou, they just thought it was some kind of disguise.

Inuyasha pulled the blade from his chest, the blade that Bankoutso had foolishly let   
go of. He then darted towards them at full speed and cut them both across the chest and   
on their shoulders.

"What the?" Asked Jankoutsu, still not processing exactly what was going on. The warm red liquid began to stick to his clothes. Being humans, they could not take such a deep cut and continue fighting.

Inuyasha smirked at the two startled forms. "Leave now, and I'll spare you." The two stared at him for a moment and then turned to run away.

"We will get you back Dogman, and next time we'll invite some of our friends!" Bankoutso yelled over his shoulder.

"Bring it on."

Inuyasha then turned down to see the victims. It appeared they had been both temporarily knocked unconscious. Inuyasha decided to watch them from the rooftop until they were able to walk home.

The boy suddenly shivered and pulled   
himself up. "What…what happened?" He asked no one as he rubbed his eyes. He   
looked around only to see his love lying unconscious.

"Tsuyu! Oh God Tsuyu! Are you okay?" He asked panicky. He turned her on to her back. She lay there still and pale. "Tsuyu." He whispered softly as he held her in a tight embrace. "Please…please Tsuyu, be okay."

Her eyes fluttered open. She was confused. "Where am I?" She   
looked around at the brick walls to either side of the alley.

She felt herself be gently pushed back. "Tsuyu! You are okay!" She looked up to see the face of her childhood friend.

"Nobunaga? What are you doing here?" She asked.

The boy didn't seem to here her as he pulled her close and began to sob. "I thought…I thought you might be hurt. I would never forgive myself if you got hurt." He pulled her in even tighter if it   
were possible.

Tsuyu sat there trying to figure out what had just happened. Then it came to her. 'I was being kidnapped by these two men and Nobunaga came to help me. But he got hurt…who saved them? Wait a minute. Nobunaga tried to save me! What on earth? Why would he want to save me?'

She stopped thinking to listen to what Nobunaga was saying. "Tsuyu I love you and I would have died if you got hurt. I got knocked out…I   
couldn't help you…but those men left and you are alright and…and-" His eyes widened   
considerably as Tsuyu brought her lips to his.

'Tsuyu…do you feel the same about me?'   
She backed out of the kiss.

"Nobunaga, I love you too. I don't know what I was thinking, ignoring you like that, but now I realize that-" And Inuyasha ran off. He was   
happy that those two were safe, but he had other things to think about then some strangers' relationship. (I bet you fluff lovers are pissed now huh?)

Miroku had finally gotten home after walking with Kagome. He walked past his   
drunken father on the floor. "Good night dad."

The truth was that that man on the couch   
was not Miroku' s father, it was only his uncle. He shook his head in dismay and walked   
up to his room.

It was dark and gloomy. He switched on the light switch. The yellow glow of the bare light bulb illuminated a small circle which consisted of his desk and nightstand.

He took a seat by his desk and stared at the picture frames covering it. He held up one that had a small, happy family on it.

There was a father, a tall man that stood at six foot four, holding his wife by her waist. He had a bald head (It was shaved) and he   
had both ears pierced. They were small golden hoops.

Miroku brought his hand up to his left ear. His fingers came in contact with the cool metal that hugged his ear lobe. His eyes glazed over.

The woman had long, jet-black hair that gently fell down to her waist. Her purple sundress matched her dark violet eyes. In her arms she held a small baby boy. He was staring wide eyed at the camera while sucking on his thumb. His short black hair was pulled into a rat's tail that fell to the side of his head.

Miroku bit his bottom lip. "Mother, father, why…why did you have to leave me?" He whispered   
silently to himself. 'You showed me so much love and kindness… you didn't deserve to die like that!' The hand that was now on his leg tightly clutched his pants.

Flashback

Miroku was seven years old. He and his family lived in New York.

His mother, Relina and father, Heero were cooking dinner. Relina was wearing her business suit from earlier that day with the blue-beaded necklace that she always wore. Her apron was covered with flour from when she attempted to batter the chicken. Her hair was in a tight bun near the top of her head. Miroku thought his mother was the most beautiful woman in the world. She licked her bottom lip while measuring the amount of water to pour into the soup. Obviously cooking was not her specialty.

Heero had changed into jeans and a t-shirt and was barbequing on the patio right next to the kitchen.

Miroku looked back down at his drawing. There on the paper was a picture of his family. He had drawn it. Tonight before dessert he was going to give it to his parents as a present. They had been working long and hard for the past few weeks, so Miroku had plenty of time to plan for this day.

"Heero, where is the ladle? After all these years we've lived her I've never cooked and I'm just about had it to here." She brought her hand up to her neck. "Where is everything?" She gritted her teeth and searched frantically for the utensil.

She heard her husband laugh. She stood up from her kneeling position and turned to see her husband holding the ladle. "Where did you find that?" She asked a little irritated. He pointed to the pot on the counter.

It was filled with all the utensils that were too large to fit in a drawer. She flushed in embarrassment. That pot happened to be right next to the stove where she had been standing for almost an hour now.

She gently took the utensil from her husband and walked to the stove. "Miroku honey, dinner will be ready in just a few minutes, wash your hands." She directed kindly.

"Okay Mommy." The young Miroku jumped off his chair and ran down the hall. She smiled warmly at his back.

She almost jumped when she felt two strong arms encircle her. She tilted her head to the side and saw her smirking husband standing behind her. He placed a gentle kiss on her neck. She smiled. "Not now Heero, at least wait till the boy's asleep." She said in a sarcastic tone. He brought his head back up. He blew gently on her ear. She giggled. "Stop it!" She batted his head away with her hand playfully. He let go and went to the barbeque pit.

Miroku came back from the bathroom. "Mommy, I'm hungry! When are we gonna eat? I've been waiting for a bout a gillion hours." He pouted and held his arms up for emphasis.

She smiled. "Just a minute hun." She bent down and gave him a quick hug.

As if on cue, Heero quickly walked in holding a tray of food. "Yea! Food is here!" Miroku shouted. His parents smiled as they prepared the food onto plates.

"Miroku, you hungry?" Heero asked as he teased his son playfully with a plate of food.

"Daddy! Give it! I'm hungry!" Heero finally gave in and put the plate at his son's place at the table. "Mm…" exclaimed Miroku as he stuffed the food into his mouth.

"Miroku!" His mother yelled. He raised his head innocently. "You know that we always pray before we eat." Miroku put his fork down and stared at his plate.

"I'm sorry Mommy."

"That's alright. Now come on." She held out her hand for him to take and the family began their prayer.

The family always had a strong faith. Miroku was raised going to a temple every week and praying to the gods because they came from a long line of priests and monks, faith being one of their strong backgrounds. Their family was even said to have special spiritual powers, though no one had yet to experience them.

Once they had finally begun to eat, they were all talking fervently since they didn't normally spend so much time together.

Miroku was very happy and talkative himself. He normally ate with his uncle Moushin, it's not that he hated Moushin or anything; it's just that nothing could beat his parents.

"Ah, now that was good." Said Heero as he placed his fork on his plate. "Nothing beats a home cooked meal."

"Now that's right." Agreed Relina. "Especially when we can eat with our little Miroku." She nudged her son under the chin.

They heard a knock at the door. "I'll go and get that." Said Heero as he placed his plate in the sink. Miroku was picking at the last few bites of his corn when Heero' s voice came loud and…nervous. "Kagewaki!"

Relena had been listening from the table; naturally she was curious as to who could possibly want to visit their house at dinnertime. When she heard a name…THAT name, she began to panic. "Miroku honey, go to your room."

"But Mommy! I haven't finished my favorite part yet." He whined.

"Miroku." She tried to reason with her son.

"If you go to your room now and come out when I tell you to, I'll give you extra dessert." Miroku thought about this for a while.

"Okay, as long as you promise…!"

"I promise honey!" He was going to protest some more, but he gave up.

He walked to his bedroom and put some finishing touches on the picture he was planning on giving to his parents.

He heard his parents talking rather loudly. He also heard an unfamiliar voice. He was getting restless, he WAS just a little kid locked up in a room. So he quickly got bored and decided to go out to give his parent the picture.

When he opened the door, he saw something that he did not expect. A strange man was arguing with his parents. Miroku decided to hide half way in his doorframe.

The yelling had become quit loud when the strange man took a sharp stake from his jacket. The stake had a sharp point and it glowed. It was a strange glow, dark and menacing.

Miroku' s young eyes watched in silent horror as the steak was placed through his father's chest, devouring, consuming him from the inside. The screams were inaudible through the panic.

Relena tried to push the man away from Heero as he screamed in pain. Tears found their way down her face as she fought to save her beloved husband's life. She went closer and closer, yet she kept her distance from the sucking force from the hole. In a matter of seconds Heero was gone and the man was still holding the glowing stake.

Miroku couldn't understand what happened, and he being a young child did not yet develop good judgment. He yelled his father's name as he ran out of hiding and to his mother's side. "Miroku! No!" Relina yelled as she held her son close to her side.

The man, Kagewaki smirked, the boy was just another innocent victim. Adding one more to his list wouldn't hurt anything.

He took the stake and threw it at the pair. Relena quickly saw the stake and swung Miroku behind her. She was too late for the stake had hit the boy's right hand and was slowly drilling a hole.

He was too shocked with so many things going on in such a short time, he slowly fainted, landing roughly on the ground. "NO Miroku! Oh my God!!!" She quickly took off her blue beaded necklace and wrapped it around her son's hand.

Those beads were pray breads blessed from generation to generation of her family. The stake broke apart and dematerialized in the air as the beads stopped the sucking effect of the hole that had been made, though there was no way she could destroy the hole completely.

"You sick bastard! How could you do this to a child!" Miroku was silent, too shocked to move or scream. Kagewaki smiled at the depressing sight as he lunged towards the woman.

She raised her hand, thus generating a pulse of spiritual energy that partially consumed him. His arms slowly disappearing in the bright white light. His clothing disappeared as a wooden doll fell to the ground.

Relena fell to the ground. Landing with a grunt. She gasped for air, frowning though she was happy the evil man was gone.

As she groped the floor to find her son she felt the wooden doll. She hadn't seen it before, she thought she had killed Kagewaki, but she didn't, it was just a…

"Demon puppet." Those being her last words as her energy was drained. Her body fell to the ground. She would not awaken again, not after all the energy she had put forth.

The young Miroku finally was able to move again once he had recovered from shock. He quickly stood up and looked around the room. Groping with his beaded hand because his vision was blurry. "Mommy?"

End of Flashback

Miroku sat by his desk staring at his right hand. "You're still there." He stared at the prayer beads wrapped around his hand. He prayed a few words and the beads became invisible, that way he would not be reminded of his parents' death every time he looked at his hand. At least now no one asked about what they couldn't see it.

Hey guys!!! What's up? I hope a lot of you get to read this! It's like as soon as I update it's already on page ten of the recently updated section!

I hope ya'll liked this chappie! Plz review...you make me hurtsniff sniff, tear tear

demonspawn666


	8. Dealings in the NIght Part 2

Well, I hope you guys like this chapter, I do!!

DISCLAIMER: I own nothing....

Read, Review, and Enjoy!!!!

Chapter Eight: Dealings in the night pt.2

She found herself walking in the dark hallway, only the sound of her steps to hear. She didn't want to come to this meeting. In fact, she wouldn't have gone, but he insisted and there was nothing she could do to refuse. The closer she got to the door, the angrier she became. 'That bastard, exactly what is he up to anyway?'

As she turned the knob, the crack of the door revealed a dark red light. She took a step into the room and closed the door behind her. "What do you want Naraku?" Her voice was clearly dripping with venom.

He laughed, a deep haunting laugh. "It seems you aren't very happy to see me, eh?"

"Who would be?" She barked back.

He ignored that comment and leaned back in his leather chair. As he folded his bony fingers he began, "I see you have been disobeying me lately."

"What the hell are you talking about!?!" She exclaimed. "I've done absolutely everything you've told me too! You said distract him, I did. You said to learn about her, I did. You said to make her feel she couldn't talk to him, I did! What the hell more do you want from me!" She fumed, standing flustered from anger. She was about to walk out of the room when…

"You walk out that door and I'll kill him." She froze.

"You wouldn't do that! He's never done anything to you, he doesn't even know you!"

"I wouldn't? What makes you think that? Do you think I care whether or not my victim knows me? You've been lying to yourself." He paused.

She stood cold and rigid, staring straight into his eyes. She saw no lie, no deception. He didn't care at all. "You promised you wouldn't kill him!"

"Only if you did what I told you to."

"I have."

"Your job isn't finished yet."

"What did he do to you anyway? He's never done anything, EVER!!!" Tears formed at the brim of her eye. She clenched her hands, knowing she was trapped. She took in a few deep breaths of air. "If I help you…what will you do to him?"

He smirked. "I just have a little torture planned. His father took something that belongs to me and I plan to take it back. I'll have my fun with her as well… she doesn't quite realize what she's done to me just yet, but I will get her back for it. …So if you must know, he'll live and be yours to have. There's no need to kill him just yet, on the other hand, she won't be a problem anymore. She'll be dead soon enough, that is, if you follow your orders. "

"I-I'll help you." She stood up, preparing to leave.

"Excuse me?" She looked up at the sound of his voice..

"I noticed you were spoiling my plans. She has to go and you almost stopped her, fortunately…" He motioned to the door behind him. A short girl came forth. Her pale face was emotionless. She held a video recorder in her hands. "Kanna, show her what the two friends are doing." She held up the electronic devise, the screen flashing images, the lights flashing against Naraku's face, revealing his wavy hair. "These two fools who dare to call themselves her friends… they are helping make up for your mistake. Your quit fortunate." He paused, allowing her to view the screen for a short moment. "You're letting this get to you, your feelings for him are getting too strong. You mess up like you did earlier today and he will die." He took out a picture from his desk. It was him. Naraku slowly ripped it through the middle, right in front of her eyes. Then let the pieces gently float to the floor.

She stood in silence for a moment. "Yes Naraku, I will do my job." She stood up and ran out the door, back to the dark hallway, back to her mission…

"This has got to be the worst week ever!" She exclaimed as she jumped in her bed. 'First mom calls me a slut and then I'm in this weird fight with Inuyasha. And to top it all off Naraku's been really scary, unusually scary. But then, I did meet Miroku. And Dogman saved me. Thinking of Dogman…why did he save me? Did he know Naraku was going to do something? How could he have ended up so close? Well for whatever reason, I'm thankful. Who knows what that asshole would have done to me. Though have to say, part of me wishes it were Inu who saved me. (Talk about the irony…lol) I mean, he's been acting weird lately. If he were there to stop Naraku, at least I'd know he still cared. That would be so nice. I think he's mad at me…I wonder why. I love him so much, he's always been such a good friend, but… back to Dogman. His eyes! They were this gorgeous amber. What a fire burned in them! It was like he really cared about me! And his hair! That silver. Like Sesshoumaru's, long and shiny so what kind of demon is Dogman? I'd assume a dog demon given the name, but there was no way Sango or Shippo could have been sure of that. But then…maybe Dogman is related to Sesshy and Inu? (Oh what she doesn't know) But whatever he is, he saved me from that bastard Naraku, and he saved Shippo and that other child. Dogman is a hero who saves those in need. The kind of hero that tool the time to save someone like me. Man I'm thinking really fast… But anyways, that's all I ever really wanted since Naraku moved in, to be saved and Dogman might be the one to do it… I think- I think I might be in love with Dogman!' (Bet you didn't see that coming. Or did you? Was it that obvious, that predictable? Oh well! There's still a lot more to this chapter!)

Pissed. Yes, that would describe what he was now. Sesshoumaru had had a long day of work, a long and frustrating day. And to top it off, his car broke down about ten blocks down the street. He would have jumped home, using his demonic powers that would have been a simple task, but the people in Dayship weren't used to demons. And so he, Sesshoumaru kept on the down low so no one would pay him any special attention because of his blood, unfortunately because he was walking, his annoying secretary, Jaken, insisted in coming with him. As if someone as strong as Sesshoumaru needed help. But it didn't really matter, no, because Jaken was always clearly threatened by Sesshoumaru and was too nervous to talk. Or at least that's what Sesshoumaru thought, then it clicked, "That annoying toad never shuts up. Why is he so quiet?' He couldn't quiet figure it out in his head, so he decided to do the next best thing. Ask Jaken. "Jaken?"

"Yes Milord?" Said a jumpy Jaken.

"Why is it that you are so quiet when you are usually so annoying and talkative?"

Taking no offense Jaken answered, "Milord, does it not bother you to walk in such darkness? If some thug were to jump out of nowhere… wouldn't we be quite defenseless against knives or guns? Do you not see the possible dangers?"

"Jaken, aren't you aware that you yourself are a full fledged demon? Surely a knife is no competition for you?"

"Well yes Milord, I could survive it, but we still don't know the extent of the dangers that lurk around these streets at night."

Sesshoumaru sighed. 'What a foolish toad, can he not smell the wolves?'

A high-pitched scream echoed through an alley further down the dark street. Jaken shivered and walked nearer to Sesshoumaru.

"M-Milord?" He paused; his slimy yellow eyes searched his surroundings. "Did you not hear that scream?"

Sesshoumaru stopped in his tracks. Looking up to the night sky, he sniffed the moist air. "It's just wolves, they like to play rough…such animals." (Like he isn't…)

As they neared the alley, the screams were muffled and slowing down. Then many footsteps approached them. Sure enough it was a small pack of wolves. (And if you happened to be wondering…'How could there be wolves in a city?' I say to you…there are demons in this place too; the wolves are simply someone's pets.) They began growling. Jaken took one look at the animals' fiery eyes and hid behind Sesshoumaru. 'Such a weakling.' thought Sesshoumaru.

He looked at the wolves. They were thin and dirty. He jumped gracefully in the air and charged at them with his sharp claws. They were quit unhealthy and were easily slaughtered. As he landed on sidewalk, behind where the bodies laid he sniffed the air. 'Human blood?' He asked himself. He slowly walked by the ally, there he saw...

In a dark apartment near the edge of Dayship:

Five 'men' sit around a table with nothing but scraps left of their meal. One stood up, average height but with green hair. "You guys are so messy! I'll have to soak these dishes for hours! You could at least have the decency to bring them to the kitchen!"   
As he said this, only one stood to pick up his dishes. This man stood tall and dark.

"Oh no!" Said the first. "Bankoutso not you! Hear let me take that!"

"It's okay." He said in a gentle voice unfit for his rough appearance. "It's the next room, I'm pretty capable of moving it myself." The first man backed off to the side and followed slowly, disappointedly, behind.

As the first man was gently scrubbing the dishes he heard the phone ring. "That's odd. Who could possibly be calling us? And at this time of night? Absurd!" He let the phone ring while he was drying the last dish.

"Are you going to get that fag?" Asked a gruff voice from the other room.

"I'll get it when I'm well and ready!" He yelled through the wall.

The phone stopped ringing. "Well I guess who ever that was really didn't need to talk to me."

He began to hum as he placed the plates in the highest cabinet. When on his toes, stretching to place the final plate up the piercing ring of the phone blared. Out of surprise he dropped the plate. It broke, hitting other dishes as it fell down. "God dammit!" he yelled in frustration. (Quite unlike him)

He walked to the phone and picked up the receiver. Than he slammed it down not wanting to known who called, making him create such a mess.

The rough looking man from earlier came in. "Jak, what's wrong? What happened here!"

"The fucking phone scared me and now look at this! Now I have to clean all this up!" He bent down and began picking up the large pieces of glass. As he did so, a small piece sliced his index finger.

A sting flowed through his hand as he stood up in surprise. The rough man who was also picking up glass rushed over.

As he saw the crimson liquid drip on the counter he quickly placed a band-aid on the small injury.

"Here you go, be careful! It's glass, it will be sharp." The other man nodded in response. Their eyes locked.

The phone rang again. 'Jak' mentally cursed at the phone, ruining the moment for him.

"I'll get that." said the rough man walking up to the phone.

"Hello?" He answered in is forever calm voice. "N-Naraku! S-sorry sir, he didn't realize it was you!" He stuttered giving an awkward glance to Jak. "Yes sir...No sir of course not, nothing was ment by it. Thank you sir. You will? Oh, of course we can, we've wanted to do that for a long time, Jakoutsu and me. Really? Yes sir you can count on us." He hung up the phone and turned to Jakoutsu. His face twisted with anger.

"You hung up on NARAKU! Stupid ass! He brought us back after we were killed and you want to anger him? He has our lives in the palm of his hand!" He kicked the trashcan on the floor, scattering the shards of glass as Jakoutsu wept for himself quietly...

And as Sesshoumaru turned on the corner of the ally he saw a young girl lying half eaten on the ground. Even Sesshoumaru, one who hates humans, had to admit she was adorable, or at least she would have been if not for the blood spatters, and knotted hair.

As he looked over her he saw she was wearing an old dress witch was dirty, but from the smell he could tell those stains had been there for a while.

'So she's not only a pathetic human, she's also an orphan.' He lightly sighed in pity, though it was not a custom for him to do so.

Something about her fragile frame lying in the corner did not seem right. 'No one should have to die this way, not here, not so young.'

Some unfamiliar emotion was taking over him that he did not recognize...was it, sadness? Sympathy? He grabbed the air around his waist and a sheath appeared. With his right hand he grabbed the sword and sliced the girl's body.

It would have seemed a horrific act if not for the fact that no cut was made, and her wounds slowly began to close. He placed the sword back in its sheath and picked the small child up.

He hoped she would not awaken just yet.

As he turned around holding the girl Jaken turned the corner. His eyes widened in shock. "M-Milord?"

By now he was in front of the orphanage. He wasn't quite sure what to do. Carrying a sleeping girl into an orphanage- when he was a demon- would look quite odd. As if there wasn't enough negative connotations put on him for being a demon!

He quickly dashed in the building placing the child on a seat in the front office. The secretary was faced back and no one was sitting in the room. He looked at the child one last time.

To his surprise her eyes were wide open. He quickly ran off, cursing himself for showing such mercy to the kind who wouldn't spare him the time of day...

So he then found himself walking to the newspaper office. (He had to get his mind off of self-loathing) As he walked in the main office he spotted the secretary and walked towards her desk. He was quite surprised to smell that she was a demon.

"How may I help you sir?" She said as she fluttered her long black eyebrows. "My name is Kagura." She stared at him, her red eyes flirting with him.

'Disgusting' He thought to himself. 'What actions! A disgrace to demons...'

"I'm looking for the photographer that took these." He placed pictures of Dogman on her desk.

She looked at them. 'Oh he wants to see that wench.' She rolled her eyes. "I'm afraid she would like to remain anonymous."

"She?"

"What did you think?"

"Nothing really, just curious, but I would still like to have a word with her."

"I'm afraid you couldn't do that. Even if she wanted people to know who she was, she isn't in the building right now."

'Really? Well it is late...11 PM. I guess not everyone stays at their office this late anyway. But it seems a lot of the staff is here though. Why not a photographer so that she could develop her pictures and not come in the morning? School? Could the photographer be a student?'

He pondered around these thoughts for a moment, forgetting he was still standing in front of Kagura's desk. 'So handsome, so calm...And he looks strong too! Maybe he could help me...'

He snapped of his deep thought only to see her staring at him quite intently.

He glared back at her. When she noticed the sharp stare she was receiving, she quickly faced the computer screen in front of her. "Anything else I can help you with?"

He turned around and walked out of the building, having no more questions to ask.

"Well that was rude!" She said to no one as he ignored her and her question and walked out the door.

Sango had been standing around the corner wondering who was asking about Kagome.

As he walked off she spotted his silver hair. She instantly thought about Dogman. But then she saw he had ears almost like humans, but she realized there really wasn't a way to hide those.

And she was close enough to Dogman to see he had no human ears, the dog-ears were real. 'Who is that guy and what does he want with Kagome?'

End of Chapter 8

So...how'd you like?

Well I know that this may seem like a pain, but I'm requesting 5 reviews. 5! That's it! It isn't like I'm asking for a miracle, I just wanna know that some ppl are reading this fic!!!!

yours truely, demonspawn666 (the one and only, or at least I hope!!)

I bet you can't wait till chapter nine now can you?


	9. Happenings

Chapter Nine:

And so…it was now the night of the Winter Ball.

Kagome was in her room, packing for a girl's night at Sango' s house. 'I hope Miroku had time to find a better date. But I still can't believe I gad to go and get my dress ruined right before the Ball.' She sighed.

She knew that whether or not she could believe it, it did happen: and now she wasn't going to the Ball.

She looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her ebony hair was in a knotted bun, her jeans were torn, and her cotton sweater was a faded yellow. 'Maybe I just wasn't ment to go. That's probably it. It's not like I was Miroku' s REAL date. What was I even thinking? I wouldn't belong there. This is just the way things were ment to be. I'll have fun with Sango, and all my classmates have fun at the Ball. I guess I'm okay with that.'

She packed the last item into her small suitcase, the Shikon Jewel.

The Shikon was a pink crystal sphere. Inuyasha had given it to Kagome, but that was a long time ago. Now he gave Kikyo things. She held the silver chain between her fingers and stared at the jewel. It gave off a faint pink light. Just holding it, she felt something warm inside. She smiled, and put the jewel in the bag.

She picked up her bag of clothes and silently walked into the hall. It's not like her mom ever knew where she was but Kagome never wanted her to find out. It just wasn't worth it. Whenever she wasn't at school or at home her mother would explode on her. That was it, end of discussion. It didn't matter what Kagome did, but she almost always got in trouble for something. So tonight she had decided she would quietly sneak out and then she would come back early in the morning. No one would notice she was gone, no one in her pitiful family. And so she waited at the bus stop.

She sat on the bench, waiting for the vehicle. She looked down the street at Inuyasha's house. 'I wonder if Inuyasha and Kikyo will have a good time tonight.'

Inuyasha had just put on his tux. (A/N Now I know what you're thinking, 'A tux! It's not like this is the prom or anything!' And I say to you, 'No it isn't the prom, but the Winter Ball is VERY formal, get over it!') It was a black coat and pants with a dark red vest. As he tied up the necktie he looked up at his reflection. 'Wow, this looks pretty good, I hope Kikyo likes it!' He smiled and walked down stair to the kitchen.

He opened the refrigerator and picked up a plastic box. In the box was a corsage, delicate red roses surrounded by baby's breath. Kikyo had told him about her red dress earlier. She said it was the exact same color as a red rose. He thought she would look so beautiful.

"What are you doing Inuyasha?" Came the smooth voice of Sesshoumaru.

"Getting ready to leave."

Sesshoumaru nodded. " Do you think she will like that?"

"Uh…yea, it is what she asked for." He raised an eyebrow at such an odd question.

"Good, but personally, I wouldn't know. Humans confuse me."

"How so?"

"Well for instance, Kagome."

Inuyasha felt a sudden pang in his chest. He put the strange pain aside and began to ask. "What about her?"

Sesshoumaru looked Inuyasha in the eye. "Well, she is one of the few humans I know the slightest thing about, she seems quite likeable too. I just don't understand how her mother could be so mean to her. I would have guessed that demons were a lot crueler to each other. We can kill each other without regret, but we would never harm our own kin."

Inuyasha was silent. "I guess, whatever." He quickly left the house to go get Kikyo, no use lingering on such a depressing topic. He opened the front door and looked towards the neighboring house, Kagome's house. The kitchen light was on, but as far as he could tell, no one was inside or at least no one was awake. Whatever, it's not like it really concerned him…

Bring!

There it goes again, the familiar Lord of the Rings theme song. Kagome picked up her phone. "Hello?" She was on a bus right in front of Sango' s apartment complex.

"Hey Kagome, it's Sango. Where on earth are you? You're supposed to be here!!"  
Sango sounded pressured.

"Chill out, I just got of the bus, I can see your apartment from here."

"Oh, okay well then hurry up!"

"Okay…"

"Bye."

"Bye." Kagome turned the phone off and walked up the staircase leading to the second story. It was a cute complex, the apartments had yellow siding and it was mostly single women living there. Kagome walked up to 3B and proceeded to knock on the door, not that there was any real need to. As soon as she got there the door was open and Sango was beaming.

"Uh?" 'Why does Sango look so…happy?' Kagome's confusion was clearly visible to Sango. "Sango, what are you so excited about?"

"Well, you're almost late!"

"Late for what?" Asked Kagome, feeling tension even though she had no idea what was going on.

Sango pointed to the hall entrance and she saw Miroku in a tux holding a…dress box?  
"What's that for?"

"For you to wear silly." Sango lightly jabbed Kagome in the side.

"What, you thought I'd let you get out of going with me?" Teased Miroku as he presented the box to Kagome. Kagome looked at the golden box and slowly reached out to it.

"What? Are you afraid it will bite you?" Sango laughed at Kagome. "Well if you're going to take so long just to grab it, maybe I should just take it now. Come on to my room we have to get you dressed!" Sango took charge of the situation. "I hope you brought the jewel, it will make a nice match to the dress…" Sango continued jabbering as they walked to her room.

They walked in and shut the door behind them. That's when they heard someone trying to open it. "MIROKU! Kagome is getting dressed buzz off!"

"Aw." He grunted. They could hear him walking back to the living room and giggled.

Inuyasha was leaving to get Kikyo when he heard a strange noise…screaming? He ran back to his porch and changed forms in the shadow.

He stood still and listened. He heard the noise again, though it seemed amplified by his hanyou ears.

He couldn't decide what it was, though he knew it was his duty to save the person.

He jumped to his roof with one jump and listened for the screams. Once he found the direction they were coming from, he started making his way there.

She had just finished getting dressed and was waiting for Inuyasha. Her friends were already at the restaurant. 'Where is that worthless bastard?' She tapped her heel on the wooden floor of her apartment and peered out the window. 'I can't go without him!'

When he finally found where the noise was coming from, he quickly evaluated the situation. Some teenage delinquents were bullying what appeared to be a seven-year-old child. 'Those bastards!' This situation reminded him of Kagome, just like everything else this evening.

He pounced down from a roof and used his special attack, 'Iron Reaver Soul Stealer'

If this situation was a little different, he would have just taunted the teens, but he was mad. Inuyasha strongly disapproved of abuse. It touched too close to home, reminding him of his closest friend-besides Kikyo that is.

So, in this case, he actually aimed at the boys, the attack not only surprising them, but scaring them as well. When they looked up to see their attacker, they saw the enraged face of Dogman, the new town hero.

Inuyasha laughed to himself, 'I can see the fear in their eyes, these bastards will pay!' He grabbed each one and punched them so hard; they all fell to the ground with a thud.

He looked at the teens and smiled…serves them right.

But then he looked at his blood stained hands. He began to tremble. "Oh no! What have I done?" 'I'm a hanyou, I'm stronger then any human. I beat up the defenseless! I've become what I hate! Kagome got beat up because she doesn't want to hurt her mother; she is defenseless as well. That's why I hate her mom. But me- how could I do that? What's wrong with me?'

He then remembered the little girl who he was saving, the reason he was there in the first place.

He had expected her to be scared, frightened of what she just saw, but no. She gave a toothy smile and ran up to him. He felt her small, bony arms wrap around him. "Thank you mister! You and your brother have been really nice to me today." She spoke into his tux. He could smell wolf on her, but he was currently more focused on what she had just said.

'Wha? Sesshoumaru and I? How would she know?'

"…And his hair was just as shiny and silver as yours too, he was also really strong, and he-" Inuyasha then realized she had been speaking to him. 'How does she know this?'

"Little girl, how do you know my brother?"

She looked up at his face. "Oh, because he saved me today and brought me to the orphanage. But I don't want to go back there, that's where I came from in the first place."

'Oh, well if my 'brother' saved her, a human, than it had to have been someone else.'

"My name is Rin." He looked down at the girl again.

"Rin? Well that's a pretty name. Would you like me to bring you somewhere? I don't want to leave a little girl like you out on the street like this." (A/N: jeezum…Inu sure is irresponsible with kids huh?)

"Well if you could, sir, please bring me to the closest bus."

"Bus?"

"Well I have to go somewheres else before I go to your house."

"Where is that?"

"To the orphanage, to get my stuff. You see, I left without getting my things."

"Oh, well then why don't I just take you there." He bent down and told her he'd give her a piggyback ride.

After he had dropped the young girl off he then remembered, "Oh Shit! Kikyo! I'm late and she'll be so pissed…"

Sango had just put the last touch of Kagome's makeup on. "Wow, I'm impressed with myself." She stared at the younger girl for a moment. "Kagome you look so beautiful in that dress." The two women stood up. Sango forced Kagome into a bear hug. "Have a good time tonight hun." She whispered into the girl's ear. Kagome nodded and smiled.

Miroku, who had been watching TV in the living room, turned his face as soon as he heard the door open. He looked at Sango, able to see all her teeth through the wide smile. And then at Kagome, He smiled. 'Wow, my date looks pretty good.'

Okay...so...yea I know, that was a pretty crappy chappie, and it's really short, but I thought it would add to the suspense and that's always a good thing, right? O well, please review. Don't just read this and go off on some other story! I need reviews...I'll give you candy! well, j/j...I'm broke at the moment...


	10. Action

Chapter Ten:

He finished paying the last bill and placed the envelopes inside the mailbox. It was warm for a winter night. He was surprised to hear that the forecast called for snow in a few hours. He shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the front door. That's when he smelled something…

She pulled out a long leather jacket form her closet. "Here Kagome, you should wear this. They predict some cold weather soon, I don't want you to freeze before you get home tonight." Kagome graciously accepted the coat and slipped her arms through the sleeves.

"Sango, this is a really comfortable jacket, where'd you get it from?" She asked.

Sango froze. 'I forgot, I can't believe it.' "It was- it was my mother's…before she died."

She swallowed the oncoming tears. Kagome stiffened in the coat. She saw the emotions pile across her friend's face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"No, it's okay. I've gotten over it." Kagome nodded.

"Okay ladies, we ready to get a move on?" Said a perky Miroku as he burst out of the bathroom.

"Yes." They responded simultaneously. She walked through the doorway. 'Mom, I miss you so much…' Sango thought to herself as she locked the door.

He was playing with the green peas on his plate. His girlfriend was talking vivaciously with her friends that were sitting across the table. He was bored.

"Inuyasha! After you pick me up late, and not to mention that you smell kind of funny, you could at least be social at dinner." Kikyo said as she pinched his cheek. She shot him a warm smile, but he knew she didn't mean it. He knew he'd be chewed out later tonight.

He smiled back to her in response and nodded his head. He sat up straight and stared at his date. She was wearing a red dress with a low back. Red was his favorite color. It was strapless, and he couldn't quite figure what was holding it up. Couldn't see it now, but the bottom of the dress reached the ground. He thought she looked exceptionally beautiful tonight. Her hair was placed in ringlets on the top of her head. Every time she laughed they would bounce.

'Wouldn't most guys be thrilled to have a girl like Kikyo? Why does this feel so weird? What if it was Ka- No! I will not think of her! Kikyo is my girlfriend and it would only hurt her if she knew I was thinking about Kagome. I mean, she always gets upset when I mention Kagome, if she knew what I was almost thinking…well…I wouldn't want to be there when she goes off.' He shook his head to free his mind from those thoughts. 'Inuyasha, just be happy with what you've got.'

'Is that wolf I smell? It can't be! The only ones in this area, I killed!' Sesshoumaru stepped back from his door and looked around his house. No one was outside, no unusual noises, so where was that smell coming from?

He took a few steps off of his porch. It wasn't a wolf he smelled, but rather something that had been touched by a wolf. He looked down the street again. 'No.' He turned the other way. "No- what is that?' He saw a dark figure slowly approaching. He squinted his eyes. "That can't be!" But it was, it was the girl he had saved the night before. He walked up to her.

"Hey!" She squeaked as she crammed herself against him. He could feel warmth generating off her body.

"Little girl, what are you doing here? This is no place for a child, especially at this time of night."

She looked up at him. Her eyes were big and brown. "I came to see you!"

"Wha-" He was confused. 'What could she possibly want from me? She came all this way by herself, but why?'

She snuggled into his chest. It felt very awkward to him. He slowly patted her back with his hands. He was not used to close contact, or at least not when there wasn't any punching involved.

"You're just like Daddy!" She held him tighter. "You save me from bullies- but then you leave!" He could smell salt. 'Tears? Is she crying?' (Stupid Sesshy could be a little more sensitive!!!) "Please don't leave me!" She looked up at his face, this time those large brown eyes were filled with tears.

Now he understood. She wasn't an orphan. But even someone like him, someone who hated humans, could not understand how anyone could abandon a precious child like her. He had always assumed that humans were the loving breed, not demons, but after seeing Kagome grow up, and after seeing this small child beside him like this, he just wasn't sure about that anymore. 'I- I have to do something, I can't just leave her!' His eyes widened at that thought. 'Am I getting weak?' He shook his head. 'Maybe, but I can't send her back to the orphanage, not after this. Those eyes- I just, I just don't think this is right. I despise myself for helping humans but one so innocent should not have to suffer like this, human or not.' He picked her up and cradled her into his arms. She was still crying. "I will not leave you, I promise."

Inuyasha pushed his seat back. "Well, I think it's time to go." He patted his stomach and smiled.

"Oh, alright Inuyasha." Said Kikyo as she stood up and said goodbye to all her friends. "The limo is waiting for us outside, come on!"

She walked quickly threw the doors. "Kikyo? Why are you walking so fast?" He asked innocently as he matched her quick pace.

She turned around quickly and sent him an angry stare. "Why! What do you think? Inuyasha! You're my boyfriend and you didn't even come to my house first! Where were you? You know, you are really starting to piss me off. You've been preoccupied for a while now, and you won't tell me why! So tell me now, this is your last chance!" 'He'll have to answer me now! He does whatever I tell him to do anyways!' She smiled in conceit.

He just stared at her. 'What am I supposed to tell her? That I saved a little girl after turning into a hanyou? I want to tell her that, but Sesshoumaru told me not to. Is his word stronger then hers? What should I do.' He stood there speechless.

'Shit! This isn't how it's supposed to go! He's supposed to say I'm sorry Kikyo baby. Like he always does, what's wrong with him? Is he cheating? Oh my God! He's cheating on me isn't he? Why? What did I do wrong? Well, I better say something before he tells me that we're breaking up, we can't break up!' "Look Inuyasha, whatever, I don't care right now, let's just go to the dance." She jerked the door open and slid across the seats so that he would have room to get in with her.

'Thank God I didn't have to tell her anything.' He thought to himself.

They were both pretty silent during the drive to the dance, Inuyasha was quite thankful.

"Inuyasha." Kikyo turned her head as she spoke to him.

"Yes?" He lifted his head and was now looking at her elegant face.

"What will we be doing after the Ball?" She moved closer to him.

He gave a puzzled look. 'Going home…_what_ is she thinking about?'

"Well, Inuyasha couldn't we go to an after party or something? We've been dating for a while now, but we never go to parties together. Some people might not even know that we're dating."(Ha I bet some of you pervs thought she was getting at something else ; ))

"Why does it matter what other people know about us?" 'Kagome would never feel the need for people to know about us.' Inuyasha mentally slapped himself for thinking about Kagome again.

"Well Inuyasha, are you not happy to be dating me?" A frown formed on her face.

'O shit, I shouldn't have said that,' "Kikyo, I didn't mean it that way, it's just that I don't like people to know all my business. I love you." He kissed her nose. "And I don't want anyone trying to interfere with us." 'I'm doing enough interfering on my own!'

She nodded and sighed. "Alright Inuyasha, whatever you say."

'I have the feeling that I'm in trouble now…'

(And this is where the story gets like your normal high school fic…but I promise you, it gets good.)

They had been dancing for a while now. Inuyasha was bored. 'She just won't stop talking about us. I don't think that the whole world needs to know our business!'

He stared across the dance floor. There were dozens of people from his class that he had never met before. 'This class is so large…hasn't she ever thought about talking to new people?'

There bodies moved together, at the same pace as the music. "Inuyasha?"

"Hmm?" Inuyasha looked down at his girlfriend.

"I'm going to go freshen-up. Why don't you get us some punch or something while I'm away?" She smiled and walked off, into the herd of students. In a matter of seconds, she was out of his view.

'Well…I guess I'll go get the punch.' He began walking towards the snack table. He knew where it was because it was close to the entrance.

"Hey Inuyasha. What's up man?" Hachi came up to Inuyasha and patted his friend's back. "Kikyo's sure lookin' hot tonight!" He was beaming at Inuyasha.

"Hey Hachi. Nothing's been happening man." He poured a cup full of the red punch.

"Have you seen Miroku? I talked to him at the mall the other day, but I haven't seen much of him for the past week."

"Well, no one has, even me."

"Then where's he been? Aren't you and him tight?"

"Well, he's been…keeping to himself a lot lately. And hey, you guys are just as close, you've known him longer than I have." Inuyasha was getting mad with all this talk about his so-called friend. "Look man, I gotta go." Hachi nodded.

Inuyasha walked towards the entrance, he needed some air. But when he saw the next couple in the doorway, he froze.

"Dang man, who's that babe?" He heard Hachi say behind him.

She had been nervous, so very nervous. She had been in the shadows at school, but now she was beside Miroku, and he made himself well known.

"Hey guys!" he waved to his friends. She walked beside him, following him. What else could she do? Who else could she talk to? Inuyasha…but she had the feeling he was angry with her, and she was right.

'I can't believe it! They're here! They're the center of attention! How can they just prance around like that? How could Miroku put Kagome in the spotlight, she must feel uncomfortable!' No matter how angry he was, he still cared about her. He couldn't stop staring at the pair, especially at Kagome. Her black dress stopped shortly under her knee. An outline of an iris flower and stem was on the left side. The dress contrasted well with her pale skin. (A/N Just wanted to say…I didn't want this to be a cliché. She didn't get an extreme makeover; she just made an impression. Her classmates would have never expected her to go to a dance because she doesn't talk to anyone. That's what they're surprised about. And then…every one looks a lot different when they're dressed up)

'It's so simple…it's so Kagome.' And then he looked at her necklace, his pupils dilated. 'The Shikon? How could she? I gave that to her!' He grinded his teeth; his whole body was shaking with anger.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. "Hmm!" He jumped in surprise; Hachi was standing beside him.

"That's that Higurashi girl isn't it? She looks quite nice. Very subtle, but the necklace is quite bold. I'd always managed to think of her that way. I mean…she never talk to anyone, but she seemed to leave a lasting affect on all the people she's ever spoken to. However, I had never imagined a guy like Miroku would go for a chick like that. I guess 'Roku's turned a new leaf!" He patted Inuyasha's back and walked off to the couple.

'Darn! I didn't want everyone to crowd around like this! I hope Kagome is okay, she looks fine, at least every one's talking to me.' Miroku smiled at his friends. "Well, this is a dance isn't it? Will you excuse us while we…well, dance." He took Kagome's hand and pulled her on the dance floor.

She seemed a little surprised, but he had expected that. "I'm sorry, I know you must feel uncomfortable with all of them around you like that."

She looked up at him and smiled. "It wasn't so bad…I just have trouble talking to people that I've just met."

He nodded. "Tell me when you want to go home, don't stay here for my sake." She looked down at the floor and nodded.

Inuyasha was chewing his ice. He had finished his punch, and the crunching was helping him cool down. (Literally lol…get it, he's chewing ice! Which is cold! …Yea I know…not so funny…hides in a corner) 'Okay…calm down Inuyasha, You gave that to her as a friendship gift. We're still friends, best buds, she just has a boyfriend now, who also happens to be my best friend…and they went behind my back, not even taking the time to tell me about it, but we're still friends!' He slammed his cup on the table.

"Excuse me." He looked up: there was Kagome.

"Kagome?" 'She's so close to me, I should ask her…'

"Hey Inuyasha, I didn't know if you wanted me to talk to you in front of all these people." She smiled at him. "But I've been wanting to talk to you for a long time now. It seems that I haven't seen too much of you lately." She poured the liquid into her cup. "This Ball is pretty nice isn't it? I'm actually having some fun. And everyone looks so nice." She clapped her hands together and looked at the dance floor.

'She's right, everyone does look nice.'

"And so do you, Inuyasha. Where is Kikyo?"

"Hmm?" Then he understood her. "Oh, thanks, you look beautiful tonight yourself, Miroku should be proud to have a date like you." She blushed at the compliment. He felt his face warm up as well. "Kikyo's in the restroom, which of course means I'm alone for at least ten minutes." He refilled his cup. "Would you like to dance?"

She looked surprised by the question, however so did Inuyasha. 'Did I really just ask her to dance?'

She smiled and nodded. He offered her a hand, and they walked onto the dance floor together.

He placed hands on her waist, she wrapped her arms around his neck. She leaned her head on his chest. 'I wonder what everyone is going to say…God I hope Kikyo doesn't some out!' He felt himself tilt his head as they moved with the slow music.

"Inuyasha? Can you promise me something?"

"Hmm?"

"Can we always be like this."

He looked down at her as she looked up. "What do you mean? Dancing?"

"No dufous." She laughed. "I mean, close. All these years you've been there for me, and I've tried so hard to be there for you. Can you promise that you'll always be by my side and I on yours, even when we move away from each other, and when we have families of our own."

He stopped. She looked worried. He smiled and answered. "Of course, I wasn't planning not to." She smiled and rested on him again.

"Thank you Inuyasha." She mumbled against his chest. 'How is it that I can be so mad at her, but whenever she speaks to me I soften up?' HE shook his head from the thoughts and continued to dance.

'Look at those two, they're perfect for each other.' Miroku thought to himself as he watched his friends dance. 'I wish they could stay that way, but I know Kikyo will be coming soon. He walked towards a group of girls. (Just like Miroku eh?)

"OH. MY. GOD! My boyfriend is NOT dancing with another girl! He is NOT!" Kikyo fumed…her friends keeping their distance from her. "I am SO gonna kick some ASS! And it's got HIGURASHI written all over it!"

Kagome looked up at Inuyasha, he looked down at her. "Inuyasha…"

Their heads moved closer and closer together. 'Is this happening? It can't be!" They both thought simultaneously.

And then, Inuyasha felt Kagome's body stiffen. 'Wha?' She pushed herself away from him, and ran behind him. "Kagome! What's wrong?" He turned around. She slapped Miroku on the chest.

They boy stiffened and brought his hand to the area where he was hit.

Inuyasha saw his assaulted friend. 'That bastard! He's flirting with a bunch of girls! Kagome left because she was mad at him didn't she!'

Miroku followed Kagome's tracks. 'Oh no Miroku, you don't apologize to Kagome until you have a talk with me!' He followed his two friends towards the back entrance.

'What? I can't catch up with them at this rate!' Kikyo stopped, fuming in the middle of the dance floor, by now several students were confused at the happenings.

Sorry you guys had to wait so long for this chapter, fortunately this one is pretty long!

So…why do you think Kagome ran out? Bet you won't guess right…

If you review...I'll give you a cookie! Wait, no, I'm lying, I can't afford one...sorry, but plz review anyways! This is the first story I've ever gotten to a tenth chapter, it means a lot to me if you say that you like it!

Plz review...give me the good, the bad, and the ugly!


	11. Dum, Dum, Dum!

Chapter Eleven:

She was fuming. 'How could he?!' Kikyo stopped running, straightened her dress, and returned to the gym. 'Just because he is being an ass doesn't mean that I have to have a bad time.' She walked through the back entrance.

Everyone was dancing now; a slow song was playing. All of her friends were dancing with their dates, just like she was supposed to be doing. 'What does Inuyasha see in that Kagome girl? I saw them; they almost kissed! I'm glad the bitch was scared off when she was. Inuyasha and I have really been drifting apart lately. It's not like I've put my heart into this relationship, but it hurts. I can't believe him. He's supposedly 'caught up' with me, so how can he be falling for her? I know they've been friends for a long time and all, hell I know their whole history, but how could they be falling for each other NOW?' She shook her head and headed for the refreshment table.

'Gotta find Kagome! Gotta find Miroku! Did she really run away because Miroku was with some other girls? (Remember, Inuyasha thinks they were dating or something) I know Miroku's a letch, but I still can't believe he'd cheat on someone. Especially not Kagome, she's so innocent. He really seemed to like her.' Inuyasha thought to himself. 'Look Inu, stop thinking about his motif, he still made her angry, it's not like there was any other reason for her to run away like that!' He was in an alley now, he'd been following Miroku, but he was still far behind. For some reason Miroku was running unusually fast, like his adrenaline was really pumping or something. 'That's it! I'm moving too slow, I gotta catch up!' Inuyasha transformed into Dogman. "Ah, that's it!" His senses came alive now. He could smell the dumpster he had passed seconds ago, he could here the traffic from blocks away. 'This is more I like it!" He jumped onto the rooftop. He sniffed the air. Many strange scents pooled into his nostrils. Some one was fumigating their apartment (he could smell the pesticides), several people were cooking dinner, and someone lit their fireplace. He couldn't pick out Miroku or Kagome's scent…if only he could remember. He listened for rushed footsteps. Someone was playing a Nirvana CD, someone was peeling out on the highway, and some one nearby was typing.

He loved his heightened senses. He felt more aware of his surroundings. But he had never once tried to home in on a certain sent or sound. 'Oh man, I'm so confused!' He dashed to the edge of the building and looked down at the street. 'Miroku!'

There was his 'best buddy'. He was hunched over, panting. Inuyasha could smell the boy's sweat, and he could hear the heavy breathing.

'Maybe Miroku knows where she went, I don't see her anywhere.' He was preparing for the jump down, but then he remembered. 'I'm Dogman right now! I can just go up to him can I?' His mind raced for an alternative plan. "Oh, I know!" He leaped off the building just as Miroku began running again.

Miroku was tired. He'd been running as fast as he could for a while now. 'This is why I'm not on the track team.' He grabbed his side; he felt an acute pain with every breath.

He took a deep breath, ignoring the pain, and began to run again. 'I just saw her turn this corner I swear!' He began running.

Kagome became his number one priority. 'What if she gets hurt? I don't know why she started running, but she looked scared, maybe she's in danger with Naraku or something. I can't let that bastard hurt her! Inuyasha would never forgive me, and I wouldn't be able to forgive myself!'

He turned the corner, he was jogging now, and he couldn't run anymore. All he focused on was his running, and the space in front of him. He forgot about everything else. But then he began to hear footsteps behind him. It only caught his attention because they kept following him; someone was following him!

He wouldn't have bothered turning around, turning would waist time. But then the figure that was behind him was now running in front of him. He saw a blotch of silver hair flowing in front of his eyes, and the person in front of him was running very fast. 'What the?'

He was about to yell at the figure when it turned around. "Running a little slow aren't you? You can't save you date at that speed!" The man grabbed Miroku's arm and began pulling him at a speed he couldn't keep up with.

"Who are you?"

"Why, I'm Dogman. Of course, I thought the silver hair would've given that away a long time ago, guess you're a slow one huh?" The figure, Dogman mocked him.

'Hmph, somehow I thought Dogman would have been a little more amiable. But then again, when all you do is save people, I guess you need to have some fun at one point. I'll let him mock me for now, but only because he's helping me find Kagome.' Miroku wasn't the kind of person who'd let someone talk to him as Dogman did, but his first priority was Kagome, not his pride. Besides, he was scared of a 'super-human' or whatever Dogman really was. (Though he would never admit that.)

He trailed behind the quick hero, hanging on for dear life. 'Oh God he's fast!'

Miroku felt his heart leap as Dogman took a two-story leap, bringing him up along with him. The air blew against his skin as he flew. 'Wow, is this what it feels like to fly?' He closed his eyes and felt the air around him, consuming him. And then he felt himself trip on the rooftop of the next building. He was stumbling, and Dogman had let go once they reached the roof. "Urg." 'Take note: Kissing cement after practically being thrown feels much…rougher…than kissing a girl.' "What'd you drop me like that for?" He yelled. 'Damn my face hurts.'

"Excuse me! You shouldn't be complaining about anything! You wouldn't have gotten this close to your girlfriend if it weren't for me." Dogman spat. "I didn't actually see her come here, but I can smell her. She's in there." He looked down at the building he was standing on.

'So much for a nice guy.' Miroku commented to himself as he brushed off his pants. "You know, it's nice of you to help me help her, but do you have to be so mean about it? I appreciate the help, but if you're gonna be such an ass about it, I'll save her myself."

"Save?" Dogman raised an eyebrow.

"Uh…yea. Duh. What did you think I was running after her for?" Miroku shot him a quizzical look.

"Well, uh… I thought that maybe you pissed her off or something,"

"Then why would you help me get to her for?"

"I don't know." Dogman looked down at the ground.

'Strange guy.'

'So…she's really in danger? How do I know Miroku isn't really lying to me? Well I guess it makes sense. Why would he run so far to apologize to her?' He played with his shirt. 'WHAT!?!?!!? Kagome's in danger! Maybe real danger!' "Shit!"

Miroku looked at the sudden outburst. "What is it?"

"She might be in danger!"

"Once again, duh. That's why I was trying so hard to catch up with her man."

"Well come on! We have to save her!" Dogman grabbed Miroku by the wrist and pulled him to the roof's door. They then began to descend the many flights of stairs.

She had been running. It was hard on her feat, high heals didn't make much for running shoes. 'Dammit! Where do I go? I'm sure I'm being followed, but…where do I go?'

When she was dancing with Inuyasha, she saw a strange man on the dance floor. It wouldn't have bugged her much, but she knew she had seen him before. And then she remembered, that man worked for Naraku. She'd seen the two of them talking somewhere in the city.

And the next thing she knew, she was yanked into a building. Someone was holding her mouth. She'd never been so scared.

Usually when Naraku tried to …do things with her… her mother always seemed to walk in, but now, that was different. Now there would be no one to just casually walk in.

She was shoved into the building and the doors were locked, there was no way out of this. "Efff EEE Wowt!" She screamed through the hand covering her mouth.

"What doll? Sorry, couldn't hear you." Came a feminine voice.

'Eh? A woman/ I thought it was a man that dragged me in…' She could've sworn her abductor was a man when they were outside, but the room they were in now was pitch black and all she could do was feel around.

She was thrown roughly on the ground. 'What's the rough treatment for? What did I do?'

She slowly got up and tried to look around. She couldn't see a thing, but she did hear voices, at least three of them, including the feminine one.

"What do you want from me?" She yelled in anger.

The voices stopped and now she could hear low laughing.

"I SAID, WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?" She slammed her hand on the ground for affect, though it hurt her hands more then it threatened the other people.

"We heard you the first time!" Yelled the feminine one.

"Well? Why didn't you answer me? Look, I now this may not be the easiest concept ever, but you have to have some reason for stalking me at the Ball and then kidnapping me. Doing all this without a motif is kinda dumb, though I didn't expect much from a bunch a Naraku's clowns!" She crossed her arms over her chest and sent a glare to the direction of the voices.

"Such a nosy little girl. Well good, you know our employer. Why are we doing this? The answer is simple. We want to keep our lives."

She scoffed at them. "Ha! What are you scared of? Naraku? Like he's capable of anything. Like he could kill anyone."

"Well, it seems you don't know your step dad very well." A second voice responded. It was deep, and rough.

"Maybe I don't, but he can't possibly be capable of much."

"That's what you think."

"Oh really? So then, what CAN he do?" She asked.

The third person butted in. "That's not the point. All we need is a little something from you, and we can let you free, for now."

"Yea, now give us th-"

Kagome interrupted the masculine voice. "The Shikon jewel? Well forget it! I don't have it."

The room was filled with silence for a moment.

"B-But, you were wearing it!" Argued the third voice.

"So what if I was? Don't you think I knew at least a little about my stepfather? I knew that he was after that thing, I don't know why but- that doesn't matter. The jewel was a present from Inuyasha, a very close friend of mine, and I'm not about to give it to you bastards! It's no longer in my possession."

They were silent for a moment.

Then the second voice broke in. "Well that's too bad. Our orders were to either get the jewel…or kill you."

Hee hee…yea, this is my version of a cliffy, sorry to keep you guys waiting so long, so I hope you like this one! Oh yea…if you have a little extra time, why don't you try reading my other story: Those Eyes? Well anyways…. Well, please review!!

I BEG of you!! This story is having NO success here! It's got eighty something reviews on animespiral, but you guys are being poopheads! : )


	12. Whatever

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha

Chapter Twelve

They had finally gone into the room were he smelled Kagome. It was empty. "What the? I could have sworn I smelled her go in here!"

"Well, apparently you were wrong." Miroku retorted angrily. Of course, anyone who had been as nervous as he was at the moment would be a little angry. He was nervous he couldn't find Kagome, and the fact that he couldn't do such a simple thing made him mad at himself.

"Don't give me any attitude! I will find her!" Inuyasha grabbed the boy again and jumped out of the building, onto another rooftop.

Inuyasha was on a rooftop. The wind was blowing softly, Miroku was babbling. "Would you shut up! Ka- Your friend could be hurt and I can't find her if you keep distracting me!" He yelled.

"Well maybe I wouldn't be so distracting if I wasn't being held by the collar! I'm choking to death and just now I realize that you aren't trying to kill me or something!" Miroku yelled feverishly. 'Who is this whacko? This can't be Dogman...can it? This is the guy who saves little kids and fights off...HIM...is he really this mean?' Miroku was kicked out of his thoughts when he was tossed onto the roof. "Dammit! Did you have to drop me like that?" He yelled as he got up. He side was now sore. He could've sworn that Dogman didn't just drop him- but he pushed him as well. 'What's his problem?'

"Yes." Dogman answered shortly. 'For all I know...you could have caused Kagome to run away.' He sniffed the air. 'But I do know, that whether it was Miroku's fault that she ran away or not- someone else ahs her now.' He was panicked now. If someone actually took the time to capture her, what else would they do to her? Kagome never did anything to defend people so- so whoever took her must be cold blooded and careless about what harm they cause her.

"Smell anything?"

"What? No!"

"Chill out!" Miroku took a few steps away from Dogman. "She has perfume on tonight. It kind of smells like...hmm...flowers. Flowers and-"

"That's right! It smelled like flowers and vanilla!" (interesting smell ne?) Inuyasha sniffed the air again, searching for the scent he had forgotten about. 'Why did she have to try a new perfume the day she was kidnapped?' "Got it!" He called as a familiar scent entered his nostrils.

He grabbed Miroku's arm and jumped down the side of the building.

"Kyaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Miroku yelled as his legs almost hit the sharp edge of a porch. They were on an apartment complex and the homes had porches that protruded from the main building. He grabbed onto Inuyasha.

He was falling gracefully until the leach grabbed onto him...now he was part of a human pretzel and plummeting to the ground. "Kyahh!"

"Kyahh!" They both were yelling, even after they landed on the soft garbage bags in the large dumpster. Dogman was the first to realize they had stopped falling. 'We are sooo lucky.' He thought as he wiped the sweat from his brow. He then hit Miroku on the head. "Idiot! We already landed! Stop yelling!" Miroku opened his eyes for the first time and realized that the stranger was speaking the truth.

"Oh."

"What's that?"

"Huh?" Miroku felt Dogman's body stiffen against his.

"The neighbors heard us...and they're angry." Even Miroku could hear the footsteps approaching now. It didn't take a hanyou's hearing to hear the loud rumble.

"Shit." They replied in unison.

* * *

She had taken a short stop at work after dropping off the teenagers. The newspaper office, even at this time, was still loud. She could hear the clattering sounds coming from the typewriters. 'Do these people ever go home?' These people DID start work very early in the morning, and it was now nine at night.

She sighed as she walked up to her office...cubicle really. She had decided to take the stairs. A little exercise wouldn't hurt that much. Her steps echoed through the stair well as she made her way to the second story of the building. She was walking slower then she normally would have. It felt like it had been such a long day.

'Kagome looked so beautiful...and Miroku was just so handsome.' She thought innocently. The two really did make a cute couple. 'I hope that Inuyasha realizes what he's missing. It's obvious that Kagome feels strongly about him, though I'm not sure in what way exactly. Then the three of them can all be friends. That would be so nice, they all deserve it.' She sighed again as she exited the stairwell and walked towards her cubicle.

It was just as she had left it earlier that day, messy as hell. 'I should probably clean it sometime.' She thought to herself as she situated herself in her rolling chair.

She dug for a pencil in the mess of papers, earning herself a few paper cuts. "Ow." She whispered to herself. "Those things really do hurt after about five of them at once" She went towards her file drawer. 'I think I have a band aid in here...but it's been years since I've actually opened this drawer. She went to the bottom one.

It was true, she hadn't gotten to cleaning her 'office' so there were many places in the small space that she hadn't even touched for a long time. "Ah hah!" She found the 'ancient' box of bandages. She took one out and wrapped it on her ring finger where the most cuts were. "Well..." She was deciding whether or not to use another bandage on her other fingers. "Nah...this one was the only really bad one." She went to close the box, and something prevented it from closing.

"Hmm?" She looked at the box curiously. "Why isn't it closing." She lifted the cover of the box and noticed a piece of paper sticking out. 'Sheesh, I know I'm messy, but honestly! I put papers...no that's a picture in a band aid box." She took out the wallet sized picture from the box. "Wha?" She dropped the box.

She jumped back a bit. "Why do I still have a picture of Bankotsu?"

* * *

They had finally escaped from the angry neighbors.

"Hey Dogman." Miroku got out between gasps.

"What?" Asked Inuyasha as he sat on the edge of the roof.

"Why were you running from them anyways? The town loves you, they'd understand that you're trying to save someone."

"Well, " Inuyasha began. "It's not about them understanding. It's about me doing the right thing. I could boast to them about how I'm saving someone, but what will that help? The police...they won't help. She won't be considered a missing person until she's gone for a little longer, at least a day. Those people can't really do anything for her anyways. They'll just make noise and distract me."

"But wouldn't the police help if we both say we saw someone drag her off?" Miroku asked.

"There's a good chance that the police don't like me. Every time I'm in the news- I did something that they couldn't. The truth is, even though I've helped a few people, many will hate me."

"What if I said something?"

"You're just a teenager, they'll probably think you're just trying to cause them trouble."

Miroku was confused by the hero's reasoning.

"Well, what can we do?"

"We...can save her ourselves."

* * *

She tried to tear the picture, but she couldn't. No matter how much she despised him for the things he had done...she just couldn't. She still loved him. He had always been there for her. He had made her life so happy, That is...until he betrayed her. But betrayed sounded like such an evil word. Was she really betrayed? Or was she just lied to?

They had been engaged, she was in heaven, and the next things she knew, her brother had been killed. Sure, sure Bankotsu didn't kill Kohaku, but he helped. Was she just supposed to ignore that fact and live on? What was she to do?

Well what she did do was move, get a new house, a new job, a new life, and she was fine with that. Except she kept thinking about Bankotsu. His hair, his eyes, his voice. No matter what she changed in her life, her heart would always feel the same. She was empty. Sure, it is better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all, but wasn't it also better to be loved back at the same time? For those feelings to be mutual? She couldn't help but question their relationship. Did he not love her at all? Was he lying to her from the beginning? Or did he actually feel for her? And in that case, was he just offered something better than her love?

She shook her head. 'Sango! That part of your life is over now! Forget it!' She placed the picture back in the box, and threw it into the file cabinet. (No, Sango! Throw it away! You can do it!) She left her papers scattered in her cubicle and didn't bother to fix anything up, she then ran down the stairs rushing to go home.

But as she walked into the lobby, she heard hushed voices. And her reporter instincts sunk in and she rushed to over hear the conversation.

"Kanna, really? Stop saying that!" Sango recognized that to be Kagura's voice.

"Fine..." A much calmer voice replied, Sango assumed that was Kanna. "Oh, but did you hear?"

"Hear what?" Sango listened more closely to the excited whispers.

"About Dogman?"

"Dogman?" Sango whispered to herself.

"Dogman?" Asked Kagura.

"Yea, I heard he murdered someone."

"What? He's been front page news, how could I have not heard about that one?"

"Well, I heard it happened years ago."

"Years? But I thought he was new."

"Well, that's not what I heard."

"Well then, what did you hear? I want to know!"

"He murdered this kid, Kohaku um...Taiji I think."

"That sounds I lot like that writer, Sango's last name."

"You thought so too? Isn't it ironic though? She is publicizing her brother's murderer?"

"Well I guess that's what she gets for having one of the best stories of the past few years."

"That's awful Kagura! Don't say that!"

"Well, it's true! She's just a mediocre reporter, why should she get the front page stories? I mean, my cousin, Musou, he's been working for the Picayune years longer than she has, and he's never had front page news."

"Aww, whatever you say."

'So wait...Bankotsu didn't really murder to Kohaku?' Sango jumped to conclusions. 'I-I, He can, he's innocent. I ended it and that 'hero' framed him?' She was excited. Her past lover might not be guilty of what she had accused him of. 'B-but can this be true?' Her eyes glazed over.

If that was true, then she HAD been publicizing Kohaku's murderer. And if that was true, she COULD go back into Bankotsu's strong arms. It was true, all these years Sango needed him, or someone to help her. Her brother had dies, and with Bankotsu gone she had no one to lean on. But now, if that was true...she had her love back!

She walked off in a daze, not hearing the laughter coming from the two voices: "Ha! She actually believed it! I would have never guessed she was such an emotional wreck that she would believe it, but she did!"

* * *

He had finally tracked her scent down. She had to be in the warehouse, she had to. There was no way that she could be anywhere else now, no where else.

And now it was time to kick some serious ass!

* * *

If you are actually reading this...if there is anyone actually reading this...plz review! 


	13. Defeat

Alrighty...I know I haven't updated in a while...but here you go. I hope you like it! And I am sorry if any names are spelled wrong, I reallly tried!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha.

Thanks to the reviewer:

Suaru- I'm so happy that you read this story! I've been trying so hard to get new readers! Thank you so much!

Chapter Thirteen: Defeat

She rocked slowly as she kneeled in the corner of the large warehouse. She didn't know why, but they hadn't killed her yet. They said they would, but apparently they lied. It puzzled her. Were they waiting for something to happen? Were they scared to kill her? Were they planning to rape her? 'I'm doomed! No matter what they do, it's not looking good for me.' She thought, scared now. She had been worried since she'd seen Naraku at the Ball. But then again it figured, nothing could go right for her. She was just about to...kiss...Inuyasha. She didn't know if she loved him, but right now that's all she wanted. She had begun to think that he didn't like her anymore. Not long after he had introduced her to Miroku, he had practically stopped talking to her. 'I thought he just wanted me off of his back. I thought that was why he wanted Miroku and me to be friends, so he could dump me on Miroku as if I was trash he needed to get rid of...but he would never do that kind of thing to me. I'm not even sure why I thought that.' She smiled, a little happier now.

"Get up." She jerked her head up, her eyes meeting the cold ones of Bankotsu. She looked up at him questioningly. Where did he want her to go? Was she going to walk straight into her death? "Look, if you want to get out of this hell hole, you'll have to get up. I'm not carrying you. Get up now, or you'll be left here, tied up, for the rest of your short little life." He said, slightly frustrated.

She looked down, considering her two options. Not much to look forward to either way. She sighed, though it was difficult to do through the cloth covering her mouth. She struggled getting up; she couldn't make much use of her hands, which were tied together at the moment. 'I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I just know I'm going to die...' She looked down, tears forming in her eyes. She wasn't ready for death yet. Not many people ever were. She always thought she'd go out strong, but at that minute she changed her mind. 'I can't do this!' She fell to her knees and began to cry, sobbing loudly.

"For Christ's sake! We aren't going to kill you." Bankotsu yelled. She looked up at him with hopeful eyes. "Yet." He said curtly as he pulled her arms with him, to wherever he was going.

* * *

He made a left turn at the corner, driving slowly as he was on the look out. He'd received a call about some foul play in the area. It figured. Some high school was having a dance, and of course there would be some kind of problem. But he didn't blame the students one bit. He was barely twenty himself, and he knew what young love was about. It was one big competition. Sure, sometimes you fell in love with some of the girls you dated, but if your friends decided something was messed up, or that there was something to be made fun of, you'd drop her in a second. High school was tough. What was the real priority? Finding love and long lasting relationships? Getting a good education to prepare you for life? Or was it popularity? He wouldn't deny that he's dropped a couple of girls for his popularity's sake, but now he was beginning to regret it.

It was strange how much he'd changed after college. After he finally got a steady job, he'd really wanted to start a stable life. A home, a car hell, if he was lucky: he'd even find a wife. But that wasn't his concern now. His sources said that some girl was brought to a warehouse on the corner of the street and he was ready to stop whatever was going on. Sure, they might have been playing around. But it could be something worse, and that was why he was there now.

He parked on the curb and took a slow step out. He stood tall. He placed his hands on his hips as he looked up at the large building. His long hair swept across his face as he sized up the building. 'This is my first major job and I, Kouga Ookami, will not screw this up!' He began to make his way towards the building.

* * *

"Ka-" was what Miroku was able to get out. There they were, in the warehouse, Kagome right in front of him, and Dogman was restraining him. "What's your problem?" He whispered angrily to the other man. "She's right there, we have to save her." He pointed across the large, open room to Kagome.

"Look Miroku, I know where she is, I'm not blind!" Dogman replied hastily. "But unlike you, I can smell three other people in the room."

"Three more people?" Miroku repeated as he searched the room with his eyes.

"Yea. I can't see them, but I can smell them from here. They could be a danger to Kagome or us. Either way, it isn't any good."

Miroku nodded in understanding. "But how will we save her then?" He asked as he turned to face Dogman.

"When you finally beat us." He felt a strong arm tightly encircle his throat. After talking to him so much this night, Miroku recognized that voice to belong to someone other than Dogman.

'Oh shit, we're going to die!' He panicked as he tried to see the hands that were roughly clenching his throat and beginning to choke him.

"Let him go!" Dogman yelled. "He's just a kid!" He stood in a defensive stance, ready to protect his friend.

"So are you, 'Dogman.'" The man said in a sarcastic way. He looked up at Inuyasha and smiled. "You see that girl?" He nodded his head back in Kagome's general direction. Dogman glared at the man and nodded. "Our boss has special plans for her." He smirked evilly.

"She's just a kid!" Dogman argued. "Who the hell is your boss? Why would he order you to do this? And why would you hurt an innocent person like this?" He was quick to question the man.

"My boss's name, if you must know, is Naraku. He needs something that she's got. And to answer your last question," The man's smile grew wider. " We told you we'd get back at you Dogman, and this time we brought some friends, as promised. If you hadn't been connected, Jakoutsu and I might not have agreed."

Inuyasha gave him a dull look.

"Oh...so you don't remember do you?" The man spoke up. "The time you humiliated Jakoutsu and I! Well then, I guess we'll have to refresh your memory." He pushed Miroku aside and walked forward. Jakoutsu came out from a corner, smiling widely. The two lunged at Dogman simultaneously. "Heeeahh!"

* * *

He slowly found his way into the building and searched the outer halls. All signs were clear, no human to be seen. If anyone was in the building, they had to be in the large, open room in the center of the huge building. He walked down the long, dark hall. He was hoping to find a door soon so that he wouldn't have to walk around the whole building. Naturally, with him being a demon, he could easily rip open the wall at any area, but that would be an obstruction of property, and not to mention the fact that there might be nothing at all on the other side of the wall.

He sniffed the air. He could smell several people, but that didn't mean much. Many people came to this building every day; it wasn't an abandoned warehouse. But still, the scent of people was strong, and that could be a good sign, well, if he was really up to this job. He was kind of bored today, so he was kind of excited that he finally had a job. But then again...he was feeling a little lazy, and a little underestimated. He was young, he was fast, and he was good. It's not that he was being cocky, but he was.

He'd been a top athlete at high school, and now he had the potential to be a top officer. Only problem: the newbies had it rough. He understood that the department didn't want to take chances with a new guy like him, but it was still frustrating. He almost hoped this case would become a big deal.

As he turned yet another corner, he could hear sounds from the inside. "Hmmm?" He asked lightly as he stopped. "What could that be?" He started to walk again, picking up speed. The noises he was hearing weren't gentle, but they were loud. They were voices. And they were angry. He began to run quickly, searching for that door...wherever it was...

* * *

Kagome watched in horror as her hero, Dogman was fighting her captors. With each punch he threw, they would give him a swing of their blades. The fight obviously wasn't fair, blades against claws, even she knew it.

And it confused her…how had Dogman managed to be there and save her? She really didn't have a chance to scream, and the only people that would have seen her at this time of night would have been the students at the dance. No one was outside at this time of night.

But what really puzzled her… 'Why is Miroku here?' She looked at her friend. He helplessly stared at the three fighters, not knowing what to do.

Inuyasha lunged at the leader of the two, Bankotsu. He was going to land right on top of him. He was so close. But then Bankotsu dodged, and Inuyasha landed on the ground. "Would you stop being pussies and fight? Stop dodging me!" He spun around and clawed the air in front of him, expecting one of the pair to be there.

"What's a matter Dogman? Feeling a little pressure?" Jakoutsu's feminine voice teased. Inuyasha looked to his left to see the two of them standing proudly beside each other. "What's a mater now? Why can't you beat us this time?" They jumped at him simultaneously and he couldn't dodge in time. He felt this back come in contact with the sturdy wall. 'Shit…why do they have the advantage?'

He gritted his teeth as a fist came in contact with his jaw. "Why so slow Dog boy?" Came Bankotsu's voice as he swung his sword at Inuyasha's abdomen. Inuyasha jumped quickly, landing behind the leader, and ran his sharp claws through the skin on his attacker's back. "Shhit!" He yelled through gritted teeth.

"What were you saying?" Inuyasha taunted him as he swung at the man's face.

"Not so fast!" Bankotsu yelled as he positioned his sword in front of his face in order to block the hit. "I'll be keeping my eyes." He smiled and swung the blade towards the hanyou's chest.

"Fuck!" Inuyasha yelled in pain as he felt the blade cut through his skin. He fell backwards, and from the corner of his eye he saw Miroku.

"Miroku!" He croaked through the blood in his mouth. "Get the girl!" He yelled as he pushed himself up with his elbows and pushed Bankotsu to the wall, forcing the man's sword to his throat. "Just try to move and you'll cut your own throat off!" He yelled angrily as he pushed the man harder, keeping him pinned to the wall. He turned around to call on Miroku and found his vision blocked by Jakoutsu.

"You won't kill my master that easily!" He hissed as he kicked Inuyasha off of his feet.

* * *

"What the hell's happening in there?" Kouga yelled, frustrated. He kept hearing the walls behind him being banged. Whoever was fighting was a lot stronger than your average human teenagers. 'I thought the people seen coming here were human! A smell a hanyou, and those noises! This must be serious!' He turned another corner in the maze-like building and continued his search for the door.

He skidded to a halt when he saw a large, garage sized, door leading to the center of the warehouse. He stood in the doorframe and checked out the commotion. There appeared to be two fights going on in spacious area. Four man, one hanyou, and one woman by the smell. He sized up the action in order to decide his first move. 'Who needs the most help? And who's the bad guy?'

(Two fights? And you thought there was only one? Did I forget something? No…just keep reading…)

* * *

"_Miroku!" He croaked through the blood in his mouth. "Get the girl!"_

Miroku had been in a state of shock. He'd only seen a small number of fights in his life, and he never did get used to the live ones that took place right in front of him. And the fact that Dogman was being beaten was not helping his state of mind. And hearing that name…_Naraku_…Kagome's own father hurting her…that was just wrong.

But he had to save Kagome, because at this rate saving her may be Dogman's dying wish. The hero was still fighting strong…well stronger then most humans…but then again, his opponents were barely breaking a sweat. Dogman could probably beat them individually, but it was two on one and he was obviously losing. No one, not even a hanyou could win with a huge gash in his chest…or at least that's what Miroku thought. Dogman did seem to prove a lot of people wrong. Miroku was hoping that was the case this time. He hoped the hero was just saving his best for last.

He slowly got up on his feet and made a dash towards Kagome. She was weakly shouting at him through the cloth tied over her mouth. She probably wasn't getting enough air, breathing through her covered mouth instead of her nose.

He ran quickly towards her, Dogman still on his mind. And then some strange guy jumped in front of him. "What the?" He skidded across the floor, almost sliding into the man as he made an attempt to stop. "Get out of my way! I'm trying to save the girl, this is none of your business!" He pushed through the tall man clad in dark clothes. But to his surprise, the man grabbed his wrist and pulled Miroku into a headlock.

"I'm afraid this is all of my business and none of yours. Dogman has caused my friends some trouble in the past and I've come to help them with their revenge."

"Look!" Miroku yelled angrily. "I don't know what Dogman did, but you better get over it! They were probably causing trouble for innocent people anyways! And this is ALL of my business because you're blocking me from my friend!" He swung a punch at the man's jaw, however, he soon found himself a little too slow for his newfound enemy.

His arm was caught, he was lifted above the stranger's head, and he then found himself flying towards the wall. He painfully crashed against the wall and fell roughly down to the ground. He groaned in pain and tried to pull himself up, unfortunately he found it hard to get up speaking as his left arm was now broken. 'This…this guy is serious…' He understood through his muddled thoughts. The pain shot through his arms and he pulled it close to his chest, causing the pain to shoot through him even more than before.

He looked up with wide eyes as he saw his attacker quickly approach him. "Shit, shit, shit! What am I going to do! There's no way I can fight him…he's too strong for me. He's too fast for me! And now I have a broken arm!' He panicked, trying to think up a strategic plan in his mind. Despite Dogman's angry attitude, Miroku really wanted him here right about now. He knew this wouldn't end well for him…

The man pulled out his long blade form its sheath. 'What's with all these people carrying swords nowadays anyway?' Miroku thought trough his panic. The man brought the sharp blade up in the air. The light danced down the long blade, joking with Miroku. IT looked so beautiful, so artistic, but it would be the same horrible, vile object used to take his life away.

He helplessly watched it glide through the air silently. The second seemed to last for hours in front of his eyes. 'I'm going to die.' He thought pessimistically as he dropped his head down, the blade mere centimeters from his head.

And then…a loud grunt sounded. The sword clattered on the ground next to him. He could hear struggling and pulled up his head. Some odd looking man was now wrestling with his attacker.

He stared blankly at the fighting two, and then at his right hand. 'The wind tunnel! I can use this!' He thought happily. He slowly raised his bruised arm and directed at the two fighting men. 'I don't want to kill the guy who saved me, but if he doesn't get off…' Miroku foolishly reached for the invisible prayer beads when his savior began to speak.

"Fool!" Miroku's mind came back to reality as he stared at the angry man wrestling the strange attacker. "Go!"

Miroku shook his head. 'What was I thinking? Was I about to use the wind tunnel? I almost killed everyone in this room. I've never used it before! I could have killed Dogman and Kagome!' He mentally slapped himself and then directed his attention to the two fighters in front of him.

"Go DAMMIT!" The man yelled through gritted teeth. Miroku quickly got onto the balls of his feet and ran off, heading towards Kagome.

She had wide eyes, and by the look on her face, he could tell that she was scared. "Don't worry Kagome. I'm alright and I'm going to save you!" He yelled as he fell to his knees and began pulling at her binds. He then realized his left arm was completely useless to him right now.

"FOOL! RUN! I"LL SAVE THE GIRL! YOU CAN'T DO ANYTHING WITH YOUR ARM LIKE THAT! GO THROUGH THE LARGE DOOR AND LEAVE!"

Miroku quickly turned to his savior who was still struggling. He nodded at the man and turned to Kagome. "I can't save you, but he can. I can tell he's strong. Please hold on for me!" He shouted to his friend, though she was right in front of him. She nodded through her tears and he ran off into the maze like halls.

* * *

Inuyasha was breathing hard against the wall. His cheek was pressed unto the metal surface and Bankotsu's blade was slicing up his back. Jakoutsu was cursing madly as he made a tourniquet for a gash in his thigh.

The fight was over. Right now, Inuyasha didn't mind the thought of death, nor did he regret loosing such an unfair fight. All that he regretted was not being able to save Kagome.

Since the moment he sent Miroku after her, he was losing. More like the moment he started fighting…

And by the sounds he could hear, Miroku had lost. He had remembered who the two men were by now, and assumed they'd brought more people with them this time as promised.

Miroku was probably dead by now…and Inuyasha was starting to smell Sesshoumaru? No…starting to smell demon. There weren't many of those around so he quickly recognized the scent. But something told him that the guy claiming to save Miroku was really a traitor.

But Inuyasha didn't know. He hadn't actually seen Kouga, nor did he know that he was a policeman. But what really would have surprised him, had he known, that Kouga had not only saved Miroku, but defeated his attacker as well.

And because Inuyasha didn't know this, he was exceptionally surprised to feel Bankotsu fall to his feat and see him grab his, now, bleeding head in pain.

Inuyasha looked at his fallen attacker, confusion written on his face and then he turned to Jakoutsu who was currently being beaten by the newcomer smelling of demon blood.

"Who are you?" He asked suspiciously as the man let an unconscious Jakoutsu fall to the ground.

The man turned around smirking. "I am Kouga." He said proudly.

Inuyasha was angry now. "Who said you could help?" He tried to seem tough, but he had to grab at his stomach because of the burning pain. "Ahh…" He groaned pitifully as he hunched over in pain.

"Hold it." The other youkai said paternally as he went to help Inuyasha. " It just looked like you were having trouble Dogman." He answered as he went to reach out to Inuyasha.

The hanyou pushed his hand aside. 'So he knows who Dogman is…' "Look, thanks for the help, but I have to help the girl, and you can leave now." He said through clenched teeth, his side hurt an awful lot.

"What? No thank you or nothing?" Kouga asked cockily. "Who do you think you are, hanyou." He said, slightly menacingly. "You needed help, and I provided. Besides, you're just a weak half-breed. You sure did a good job impressing the press though." He laughed. "But any demon could have done the job."

"Look you, this is none of your business!" Inuyasha snapped as he limped towards Kagome.

"Oh save yourself will ya?" Kouga pled. "You can't save her in your condition." Inuyasha shot the demon a fierce look. "You're hurt!" He shouted again. "Don't be stupid, you'll only get beat up more if you try to carry her now!" Kouga stared at the pitiful hanyou; Inuyasha was really beaten up now. "Look, if you just leave now, I'll promise to put in good word for you." Kouga bargained. "I'll return the girl safely." He motioned across the room to Kagome who was waiting patiently to be untied. "Save yourself, you have to be worn out."

Inuyasha stopped for a moment and weighed his choices. 'I hate to admit it…but I am a little beaten up.' He was angry at himself for being so weak. 'I might hurt Kagome if I try to carry her to safety.' He looked down for a moment. 'And if I let this dick take her…sure he might get the credit for saving her, but she will be safe. I don't really like this, but I don't have much of a choice.' Inuyasha decided, using his brain for once. "She better be safe when I see her again." He stared at Kagome's face and then slowly made his way to the door.

"She will be." Kouga yelled after him and started to walk towards the girl.

He was just about to untie her arms when he felt something cold and sharp under his neck. He gulped and looked up. There was a large man standing by his side, blade to his throat and he was wearing an evil smirk. "You thought there were only three of us?" he asked cryptically and licked his lips. "You can't save yourself now."

The man pulled his arm up, bringing the blade into Kouga's throat. But Kouga was quick to react and jumped up before any permanent damage was done. He quickly jumped back, hoping to lure the man away from Kagome before she got hurt.

Despite the man's size he was surprisingly fast and was in front of Kouga in a few short seconds. "You're not getting away from me so easily!" He swung his sword into Kouga's side.

The youkai felt the blade dig into his stomach and yelped loudly. "Shit!" He cursed as he felt the blood quickly rush into his mouth. He wasn't expecting so much speed, and he wasn't prepared to dodge. "I…I'll be back for you, girl." He sputtered through the blood as he spoke to Kagome. "And you…." He shot an accusing finger to the large man. "I…I'll kill you next time we meet!" He yelled as he shot through the back entrance. He couldn't believe he was leaving the fight so early, but he couldn't be of any help with his insides torn apart by the blade. That man was no ordinary man, not with that strength to strike Kouga like that…no normal human could do that. Kouga would be back, as soon as his side healed…and that wouldn't take too long!

* * *

Inuyasha limped weakly as he made his way through the corridors. His blood was probably dripping on the ground, but that didn't matter. The second he turned human his blood would change as well. He was worried about being caught. And fortunately for him, Kouga was there to save the day.

He didn't like the looks of the youkai, but because of him, Miroku, Kagome, and Inuyasha were still alive. That definitely counted for something.

And his wounds! They were already beginning to heal. Besides the tears in his clothes, he looked perfectly fine from the front, but his back still burned. Those cuts would take a long time to heal. They were deep. The pain shot through him with each step and he could only walk. There was no way he had the strength to get home any faster.

He opened the door as he approached the front of the building. But he did not expect to find the news crew in the front of the building. As soon as he had opened the door the camera flashes blinded him. 'What? Why are they here?' He panicked.

The bright lights blinded him as he tried to see what was going on. 'What the hell?" He asked himself. He quickly leaped to the rooftop across the street. His usual routine he had developed. Jumping high and away was the only way he could avoid being in close up pictures ever since he became the town's hero.

But when he landed he suddenly remembered why he had left alone, without Kagome over his shoulder. The pain in his back singed and it felt as if he had been shocked. He jumped slightly and fainted onto the rooftop. He couldn't go any farther, not in his condition. He could only hope that he would stay alive through the night….

* * *

"Hello, good evening Dayship!" Greeted the dolled up newscaster. "We have some breaking news tonight." She smiled goofily as she read off of the teleprompter. "In a downtown neighborhood, some residents witnessed some foul play with high school students in the area. A girl was seen running through the neighborhood. The locals called the police around 10 PM tonight. It appears Dogman was seen in action as well." She smiled. "For more on this segment, here's Yumi." The woman smiled sweetly as the scene switched.

A large camera crew was visible along with a woman holding a microphone. "Hi, I'm Yumi." She smiled brightly at the camera. 'We're coming to you live from downtown Dayship. We're in front of a large warehouse as you can see." She motioned to the large building behind her. "News is that Dogman was seen entering this building. We're here, waiting for him to exit the building. It appears that he went to save a girl who was running from strange, mysterious persecutors." The woman smiled.

The camera then focused on the steal door of the warehouse, and as if on cue, Dogman walked out of the door.

"Look there he is!" The newswoman squealed. "It appears as id his clothes have been torn a bit…" She trailed off. "Wait a second…where's the girl?" She asked curiously. She frowned for a moment, and then began to speak again. "It seems as if…Dogman has come out empty handed. Oh my, I think….I think he's failed to save that girl! Wait, he's jumping away! Where are the police!" She quickly turned frantic. "There's a girl in there and Dogman just left! What could have possibly hap-!"

Sango shot off her Television. 'So he really has been nothing but a fraud. I saw it right there on the news! Some girl is being abducted and he just ran off! He's a bastard! How could I have ever supported him!' She thought angrily as she threw her steak knife at the wall. And there on that wall was Dogman, cover page, with a steak knife in his neck…

'That lying son of a bitch! That poser! I will kill him if the criminals can't!' She thought darkly.

* * *

And there you go. chapter thirteen or whatever it is. Please review, I'm begging you. Oh, and if you have any questions, be sure to ask! 

Demonspawn666


	14. Plans

Okay, I know it has been a while, so here you guys go. I typed this on notepad, so I have no clue if it's short or not...

DISCLAIMER: Don't own Inuyasha, if I did, I probably wouldn't have so much spare time.

Thanks to Suaru: Thanksfor the review! Hope you like this chapter...

Chapter 14: Plans

He was sitting on his bed, staring at his right hand. 'What was I thinking? If I had actually used the wind tunnel, everyone would be dead now. Kagome would be dead, Dogman would be dead, and hell, the people living in that neighborhood could have been dead too! I don't know what kind of powers I have, I can't just go and suck up bad guys, it's too risky. But...I have to do something. I have this feeling that that guy, whoever he was, couldn't have possibly defeated the bad guys, not by himself. Yea, he was fast...but how much good does speed do you if you get caught? And sure, he was strong...but there were three guys! Three against one, there's no way he could have beaten them all...is there?' Miroku thought.

He looked down on the ground, the floor of his bedroom. It was a mess, as it usually was, but there was one thing on the floor that wasn't some piece of crap he'd just tossed down. It was...that necklace she gave him, that jewel. Exactly why did she give it to him? 'Does it have something to do with Naraku? Could it be that Shikon jewel? When we researched that creep...there was something about him chasing after the Shikon jewel...but why would Kagome have it? Is that why the creep kept giving her trouble? For the jewel...What if I trade him Kagome for the jewel? Maybe she'd be safe then, but it was obvious Kagome didn't want the man to have it. She wouldn't have given it to me then, would she? I'm so confused...'He sighed, resting his head in his hand. His left arm still hurt like hell, he would have to get it fixed...would that interfere with his job -not being able to use one of his arms? But something told him that a missing Kagome was a little more important than his job. He had to save her...but how?

'Could Inuyasha help? Once he finds out she's missing, he'll be pissed. He would help me, wouldn't he? He couldn't possibly be so stubborn as to not help me find Kagome...could he? He might still be mad that we went to the Ball together, but maybe he got over that. He might have finally realized his feelings for Kagome, I mean, they were getting really close at the Ball weren't they? I wasn't imagining things was I? They were so into each other...But that's not the point! Kagome's in trouble and Inuyasha might be the only one who cares enough to save her!' He shook his head. He was confused. He wasn't sure if he could trust Inuyasha to help Kagome, but was there anyone else?

'And what about Kikyo? She'll be having a feild day once she learns that Kagome's gone. She might try distracting Inuyasha from helping me. He's so dense, he wouldn't see that she's back stabbing him...well, I think she is...' A puzzled look crossed over his face, and he sighed again. 'Why do I keep getting off track? Kagome is in danger, and I have to save her. I mean, the police won't, will they? Do they even know she's gone? Should I report her, or would that be too risky? Those weird guys might just kill her and get business over with if the police give them trouble. But," He thought, an idea popping into his head. 'Dogman! He could do it! I know he lost last time...but now that other guy who helped us, and me, we could both fight with dogman to increase the odds of winning. It's possible, right? But, how do I get in touch with Dogman?' He stood up straight and skratched the back of his neck. Was this more then he could handle?

* * *

His head was pounding, thumping. He felt like crap. But, hey, what was he supposed to feel like after getting his ass kicked? Like he fell onto a bead of feathers?

He tried to open his eyes, but hissed when the bright light of the sun seeped through his lids. 'Oh hell, this hurts...' He thought weakly as he lay down. His whole body ached now, and he was so very tired. He sighed heavily. 'Where am I anyway?'

He gripped the cloth at his sides. "Wasn't I outside?" He thought out loud. His head was spinning, and the only memory he had was right before he fell asleep. He was on a rooftop at the time...but what rooftop had sheets?

He slowly cracked his eyes open, fighting the urge to shut them against the bright morning light. The room before him slowly came together through his blurred vision. The desk in the corner, the books on the shelf, they all looked so familiar...

"So you're awake. It's about time." He shifted in the bed, his bed.

"Wh- How'd I get back here? I thought I was-"

"On a rooftop, half dead, I know, I know." His older brother waved his hand as if to dismiss Inuyasha's memory. Something -anger- flashed throught the youkai's eyes as he looked upon his sibling's bedraggled appearance. "You're home now." He stated simply, as if that would answer all of his younger brother's questions. He slowly stepped towards the window and stopped. He sighed and turned his penatrating glare to the street below. "That was a stupid stunt you pulled." He said nonchalantly.

A clawed finger rested agsinst the cold glass. Inuyasha had to struggle to see him from the corner of his eye; he couldn't move his body with out feeling pain. "How did you know?" He asked weakly out of surprise. "I- nothing happened. I just got my ass kicked...and then some guy brought Kagome home." He said through gritted teeth. The scratches on his back were painful.

"So, that's all you can remember?" The youkai raised a thin eyebrow as he stood over his pitiful excuse for a brother.

"There was more?" He asked, clueless.

"I'm afriad there was a lot more." Sesshoumaru threw something at the human, well, sort of human.

Inuyasha's brow formed in a frown as he saw the rolled up newspaper in front of him. He looked up at his brother with a quizzical expression. THe older brother nodded towards the paper.

"Front page." He said coldly. "I think you'll find it quite...interesting." He turned back to the window as the hanyou unfolded the paper.

"What?" He asked dumbly, the words were scattered across the page, his vision was still to blurry to read anything. He was still half asleep.

"You made front page news again 'Dogman', but I'm afraid this time the situation is anything but good."

* * *

"Is this what you really wanted?" came a bored feminine voice. She was answered with silence. "You're pretty pathetic, you know." The woman continued speaking from the darkness. "You want something you can't have, so you trick the people around you, you trick the person you're after...and you even trick yourself. So tell me, Kikyo, was it really worth it?" The voice laughed from the shadows.

"Oh shut up!" The angry teenager yelled. "I don't care about that girl, she's not my concern. And I haven't tricked anyone!" She yelled defiantly as she got dressed for the day.

"You haven't, have you?" The voice mocked.

Kikyo stood still, her jeans hald way up her leg. "Well- I haven't tricked myself! I know what's going on!" She pulled the pants up her legs and buttened them. "Look, my part's done, leave me alone already." She said, slightly frusterated as she dug through her closet for the right shoes.

"You're pretty hostile." The older woman scoffed from her dark corner. "Not only do you do such a cruel thing, but then you get all snappy afterwawrds. Don't tell me you're feeling a little...guilty." Her dark eyes sparkled with humer.

"Guilty? Guilty about what? She didn't get anything she didn't deserve." She defended herself as she slid on the red sandals.

"And what did she do that was so bad?" The voice inquired.

The girl stopped from buckling the straps of the shoes for a moment. "Shut up!" She ground out as she resumed getting dressed. "It's not as if you're completely innocent here, you know!" She closed the closet door loudly. "You can't tell me anything."

"Keep telling yourself that, girl." A deep chuckle came from the woman's throat. "I admit that I am not without fault, but at least you had a choice."

"Oh. so you think that makes you better than me or something?" The girl snapped.

"No, no, of course not!" The woman added sarcastically. "It jsut makes me smarter..." She added lightly.

"What was that?" The girl asked, frusterated.

"Oh, nothing." She replied.

There was a short moment of silence. Then Kikyo took the situation into thought, "Why are you in my house now? My job's dune, I don't need to be under surveilance. I don't work with you anymore."

"Whoever told you that?"

"I did my half of the bargain." She snapped back.

"I'm afraid you're wrong there, other wise I wouldn't be wasting my time with you."

The teenager raised her brow. "What are you talking about?"

* * *

"What the hell? Everyone thinks I'm the bad guy now!" Inuyasha barked loudly as he bolted to a ninty degree angle. He hissed in pain as he was cruelly reminded of his injuries. "Shit..." He grumbled under his breath.

"Well, it is your fault that she isn't safe now. You just left her there." His brother stated calmly.

"But- but! That other guy! He was supposed to save her! He told me he would save her!" He yelled furiously.

"That's what you get for trusting a stranger Inuyasha." Sesshoumaru stated, as if it were the obvious decision given the situation. "And could you keep it down." He added as he rubbed his sensative ears.

"What am I supposed to do now?" He said, defeated. 'If that guy can't save Kagome, how can I?' "I can't defeat those guys..." He muttered.

"They were human, they can't possibly be that hard to defeat." Sesshoumaru commented.

"How do you gather that?" Inuyasha raised an eyebrow.

"I can smell human on you."

"Oh."

"Why was Miroku with you?" He asked simply.

"Um...I guess he was just chasing after Kagome, and I kinda brought him with me." Inuyasha explained...he still couldn't think straight.

"You guess?" The older brother raised a thin eyebrow. "Inuyasha, do you realize how lucky you are that it was Miroku who was with you?"

"Huh?" Inuyasha's face was a mask of confusion. "What difference does it make? No matter who it was...they would have seen that I was really trying to help Kagome." He stated, as if it were obvious.

Sesshoumaru scoffed. "Did it not occur to you, that even though the person would have known you were doing the right thing...they would have also known that you lost?" Inuyasha remained silent. "That's what I thought." He squinched his eyes at his little brother. "If word gets out that you couldn't defeat a group of humans, the youkai will never be able to respect you."

Inuyasha growled. Like youkais would ever really respect a hanyou like him anyway. They didn't care what became of this human girl. What was more of his concern was Kagome. 'I hope you are all right. I am coming back to save you.' He promised, even though she wouldn't be able to hear his thoughts. "Well, if I save her, the youkai can't mock me." He began. "But what about the humans? They probably fear me now." He crossed his arms, ignoring the raw scrapes on his forearm. He chuckled. "There's no way I can get out of this with everyone happy."

"Well, there is one thing you could do, but I don't know if it will work."

'Should I speak with Sango?' He asked himself as he walked down the busy street. 'Would she know where I could meet him?'

* * *

He padded slowly on the cement ground. The swishing of his jeans was the only noise he was currently making; he was very deep in thought. 'Can she even help me? No, how could she? Yes, she had been at the scene when Dogman saved some random strangers...but it's not like that was on purpose. It was all coincidental. But maybe there was a chance...?' Miroku shook his head. 'Look man, you are going to comfort Sango. She probably knows by now that Kagome has been kidnapped. You are going to try to keep her hopes up. Nothing seemed to have happened to Kagome last night, which is good. She'll probably be okay...after all, Dogman is on the job. ANd maybe if I'm lucky, I'll meet up with him later.'

Miroku was feeling slightly better that morning. When he saw that Kagome's case was on the news, he felt relieved. At least people knew what was up. It wasn't like Kagome was popular and had lots of friends (though that was completely beyond Miroku), and it made the situation worse that her mother seemed preoccupied with her husband and her liqoir. He was afraid, the moment that he left the warehouse, that no one would care about Kagome's disappearance.

He was confused though. Why was he so worried? He had only known her for about a month. Was he really feeling that guilty? Or...did he miss his friend? She was after all, the first girl friend he ever had that he hadn't become romantically invovled with. Well, excluding Kikyo, but then again, he could hardly call her a friend.

And then a thought randomly clicked in his head, 'What if I wait around the back of the warehouse for him? The press won't see me, and then I can help him when he decides to go in! It's not like I'd stand a chance alone...' His gaze slowly crept to his right hand. 'Well...even if I can handle myself, I won't. Kagome could get hurt.'

He looked down at the ground, he studied the shoes walking past him. A pair of red high heels past by. He couldn't fight against his lecherous ways as he looked up at the pair of accompaning (spell?) legs. 'Hello, missy.' He thought to himself, wiggling his eyebrows. He felt his feet follwing the heels. He looked up at the back of her head.

His eyes widened when he saw the newspaper office across the street from where the woman stood. "Oh, yea..." He felt guilt seep through himself. "What was I thinking?" He physically slapped himself for that one and continued in the direction of the crosswalk.

* * *

End of chapter. Sorry if it was short, but hell, I updated didn't I ? I'll start on Those Eyes soon...I guess...

Well, I'm listening to my new CD. Breaking Benjamin (Yea, I know it's been out a while...) It really is a good CD, or at least I think so. I love that guy's voice...whatever his name is. Mayeb I should read the booklet...

So, please review, I'm begging. I'm desperate here. I have what, 9 reviews? If anyone is reading this, please review. Please no flames. But please REVIEW!

Until next time...


	15. So Close

Okay...I'm still alive. I haven't gotten too far with the next chapter of 'Those Eyes' Though, but pleace don't kill me.

Review Responses:

**amycool : **Thanks for the review! I'm glad you like the story! I was looking at your fav list and it looks like we've beem reading a lot of the same stories...weird!

**Suaru: **Glad you like the chapter! It'll be a while before Those Eyes is updated though. I know it's been a long time...but there's nothing I can do...(Well, there is, but I won't) Thanks for the review! It means a lot to me that you're reading both of my stories!

**pwalefriend**: I'm so glad you like this story! I'm so happy it's on your fav list (I saw it! It made me feel special) Yes, he probably should dump her, but hey, it might take a while hee hee...And I love Sess and Rin too! I'm glad I was able to put them in this story!

Chapter Fifteen: (Wow, can't believe I actually made it this far!)

So Close

He was looking across the street through the window in the living room. How many times had he done this? Thousands of times, it seemed. 'Ever since father died...ever since I had to raise Inuyasha...' He thought to himself. And it was true. Once their father and Inuyasha's mother had passed on, Sesshoumaru frequently found himself staring out of the large bay window, gazing at strangers as they walked by. It had always been a good stress relief for him. Seeing unhappy people having bad days, dropping their belongings, loosing their wigs in the wind; it made his life seem so much better.

But he had to admit that this was the first time he had looked out of the window in order to keep watch of someone. Sure, he had waited out for Inuyasha when he was late to get home from parties, but...it wasn't like he glued himself to the window then. He would sneek a peek occasionally, hoping to spot his brother making his way down the old sidewalk, hoping to honor his father's last wishes. 'Sesshoumaru, please watch after your brother.' He had said, or something along those lines.

'Father, why did you leave this responsibilty unto me? Doesn't the hanyou have some aunts or uncles or someone?' He thought to himself. To be perfectly honest, his father's wish wasn't fair. Sesshoumaru had been kept from so many things because of the heavy burden of his younger brother, half brother mind you. He had dreams...didn't everyone at some point in time? But he gave them all up, had to.

Because if it was one thing Sesshoumaru would not do, he would not dishonor his father. Sesshoumaru may not come off as the most honorable, trustworthy person, youkai, whatever, but...think about it.

No one said he had to take care of Inuyasha, he was only asked to. And no one forced him to help his younger half brother with his newly found powers. And he certainly was not entitled to taking care of Rin, the young girl he was currently watching over.

The young brunette was currently writing in chalk on the sidewalk. Her hair was still a mess, just like when he had first found her, but he at least had the decency to give her clean clothes. She was wearing one of Inuyasha's old outfits: a red T-shirt and khaki shorts. She looked clean now, not cute.

...But why was he watching this young girl so closely? 'That creep might be around.'Sesshoumaru thought venomously. Who is that creep? Naraku of course. Everytime Sesshoumaru thought of that creep...that bastard...he couldn't help but want to kill him.

Sesshoumaru was thought of as a cold, heartless bastard at times. But if you really knew him, you couldn't deny that he was not so cold, and he was definately not heartless. He was just...pushed too far at times. Even as a youkai, one could only be stretched so much. But right now, he was feeling very relaxed. Watching the innocent girl playing games on the street was quite comforting to him.

But that still didn't change things. What Inuyasha had told him earlier...he couldn't get it off his mind.

'It was that creep Naraku, he kidnapped Kagome.'

It almost sent shivers down his spine, almost.

Why don't page breaks work?

He leaped over the rooftops gracefully. 'Got to get Kagome.' He thought, determined. His clothes flapped in the wind as he continued on his way across the town. 'Twenty blocks this way, ten to the left...' He imagined a map of the town in his head as he gracefully jumped. His feet made a light thud as they connected with the cement tops of the tall buildings. 'This town is pretty big...' He thought to himself, a little off topic at the moment.

'Kagome...' He thought to himself. 'This, this is all my fault. I should have gone faster. I should have tried harder. I let her go, and for what? For her to get kidnapped? Sure, I didn't know someone was chasing her, but I should have. I should have known. I should have saved her. And if she gets hurt because I was being stupi...I could never forgive myself if that happened.' Now, with more determination then before, he sped up more as he came close to the warehouse. 'So close...' He thought to himself proudly.

He leaped from the last rooftop. 'Almost there.'

Quite surprisingly, he froze while being high in the air.

"What the hell is this!" He yelled.

There he was, dangling in a fixed position roughly one hundred feet from the ground. "Perfect!" He spat cynically as he stared down at the cement street under him. "I just couldn't go straight into the warehouse and kick some ass...this just had to happen..." He grumbled about evil authoresses as he tried to figure out just what was holding him up.

"Hair?" He found himself asking soon enough. He could barely see the fine strings, but he could defenately feel them as they began to cut in to his skin. He wiggled around a bit only to find that his body was not going anywhere. "Well," He began sardonically. "Who ever did this was obviously creative, I have to give them some credit." He paused for a moment, a crimson flash crossing his eyes. "But I'm afraid I'll have to destroy this little obstacle." He smirked as he cracked his clawed fingers.

He quickly swung his arm back, then quickly sliced through the hair around him.

And naturally, he began to fall as the hair broke.

Unfortunately for him, he only cut the hairs above him and was now dangeling from his feet. "Damn you..." He grumbled.

"Hahahaha." His ears twitched as he heard the pitched laughter.

"Who's there?" He called loudly, trying desperately to sound nice. (It wasn 't working too well.)

"I don't think it's 'who' you should be worried about, it's what, _Inuyasha._"

Urgg...page break here...

"Hey."

She jumped from her desk, her papers flying across the floor of the cubicle.

"Sorry Miss Sango, I didn't mean to surprise you." Miroku quickly began as he helped pick up the papers.

"Miroku?" She raised an eyebrow as she swivled around in her chair. "What are you doing here?"

He stood up from picking up the papers and placed his hand innocently behind his head. "Well...I just wasnted to see how you were." He smiled sheepishly. 'Why am I here? I know I want to help Kagome's friend, but couldn't someone else have done this?'

"How I am?" She repeated. "Fine, I guess. Why? Did something happen?" She stopped cleaning and stood up.

He sent her a confused look. 'What does she mean by that?'

"Miroku? What happened?" A worried look spread across her features as she looked at him for an answer.

"You mean you don't know?" He asked dumbly. 'Wait...they probably didn't know that it was Kagome who was kidnapped...she couldn't have heard it on the news yet. Shit!' "Um..." He could feel a cold sweat coming across his forhead. "Uh..." How was he supposed to put it? Would she ask him how he knew? What would he say to that?

"Um...nothing. Nothing happened." He smiled innocently, or at least what he hoped was innocently as he handed her the papers he had picked up. 'God, I hope she believes that...' He thought privately as he looked around the cubicle.

An awkward silence filled the small cubicle as they both stood there staring at each other. 'He's lying, I can tell.' She thought skeptically as she turned to put the papers in order. 'But...if he really doesn't want to tell me...should I push it? That would be kind of mean of me, wouldn't it?' She shook her head. 'I'll leave the kid alone.' She opened a near by file cabinet and threw the papers in, she could file them later. "Whatever, kiddo. You want to grab some coffee or something?"

He smiled in releif, thankful that she changed the direction of the conversation completely."Yea...sure."

This is really getting ridiculous, nothing is working...

"How do you know my name!" He yelled, twisting his body in order to see the person speaking to him. He was surprised at himself for realizing that his name was spoken. Something like that would have easily been forgotten while he was fighting, but not today for some reason.

"How do I know your name?" The voice repeated, obviously feminine. "Because I know you, stupid!" He then heard a faint bout of laughter.

"Who are you?" He asked, trying unsuccessfuly to untangle himself.

"I'm not telling." The voice replied flirtaciously. "Let's just say we're...acquaintences." He heard yet another rippling of laughter as he felt the chords or hair bouncing. Whoever she was, she was moving.

He stiffened, not sure what to do. The hairs had such a tight hold of him...he could just barely move, and he might not ever see this person who was causing his immobility. 'I hope she doesn't randomly attack me.' He thought.

"So Inuyasha," The voice began. " I hear you're trying to save Kagome today." There was a pause, he felt her stop moving for a moment.

"And what of it?" He asked, trying to get some information.

"Oh, nothing." The voice answered. He felt a light tug on the hair and asumed she was adjusting her weight.

"Look, if you know what I'm ding, stop getting in my way and just let me help her." He ground out, frustrated. "I have no idea what's happening to her, and I have to save her." He admitted lightly as he tried again to break the hair by stretching it.

"Dammit!" He spat as the cords refused to break.

He then heard more laughter, deeper than before, but the same person. "You don't know?" He could feel the hair vibrating from her laughter. "Of course you don't know. You're not involved in this. You should stop sticking your noise in other people's business. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have had to get up this morning." She tugged at the hair, applying pressure around his neck. "It's a Sunday morning you know." She spat out. He could feel her prescence near him now. "You have school tomorrow."

Inuyasha tried to turn his head to face her but he could only see a blurry profile from where he was. " If Kagome's involved, it's ALL of my business. Just because I don't know for sure what's going on doesn't mean I can't guess. And I couldn't really care less about when you had to wake up." He angrily flewed his flaws and angrily fought with the hairs wrapped around him. "Iron Reaver soul stealer!" He yelled angrily as he swung his arm, surprised at his own aggression. A small bright flash blossomed from his hand and the hairs encircling his arms disintegrated.

The strings around his body loosened, and he felt his body begin to fall.

He made a quick grab at the hairs loosening around his neck and pulled himself. And then he heard the laughing from behind him.

"Not very graceful, are we?" Inuyasha ignored the comment as he looked for an escape, but he was very high up and he didn't have anything to push off of or jump from. "Would you just give up? This is pitiful." The woman commented as she stood staring at him and his fumbling around.

"What would you suggest I do? Give up and fall?" He snapped angrily. Seeing her face for the first time as he turned his head.

Her thin red lips contorted into a smile, her dark eyes dancing in delight. "If that's what you really want to do. But I was suggesting something more like...I don't know...asking me for help?" Her shoulders shook with compressed laughter as she balanced on one foot, the other gracefully bent in the air.

Inuyasha scoffed loudly. "How stupid do you think I am?"

"Well according to your report card, pretty stupid." She walked forward on a single thread, perfectly balanced. "And there's the fact you haven't thought of one particularly obvious strategy." She bit her lip as she reached into the belt hanging loosely around her tight leather dress. "Here's my baby!" She said happily as she pulled a pair of scissors from the belt. They sparkled in the sunlight as she held them above her head.

She twirled them in a quick circle before she dove down at him, cutting the hairs that were holding him, letting him drop as she balanced on strong band of hair.

He yelled in surprise as he saw his hair float in front of his face and he tried desperately to grab even the thinnist string, anything to slow the fall.

Guess what? Page Break!

"Where's the damn jewel!" The man yelled loudly as he punched the wall beside her head.

"I told you, I don't have it!" She spat angrily. She had let people walk all over her, but it wasn't going ot happen again, not now anyway. If she gave into his threats Miroku would be in danger. There was no way he could stand even the smallest chance against these strong men.

"I know that already, bitch! You tell me where you put it before I got you!" He brought his hand dangerously close to the small sheath to his side.

"I don't know!" She answered angrily.

"You gave it to someone didn't you?" The man questioned loudly as he slapped his leg, cursing to himself.

"Who did you give it to?" The feminine man yelled as he stepped forward. "We WILL find that jewel either way. But the easier you make it for us, the easier we make this for you." He bribed.

"Calm down Jak, " The leader placed his large hand on the man's chest, ignoring the now rapid heartbeat of the other man. "We have to be careful. Too many people already got involved. There was that cop, that kid, and to top it all off, Dogman. Knowing who has the jewel won't make this any easier."

The man whined. "But everyone thinks Dogman's bad now, I saw it on the news!"

"But that won't stop him from trying to stop us. He is our main obstacle right now. We find the jewel after he's dead."

Kagome looked at the conversing two. 'People are mad at Dogman?' Obviously she had missed something while being kidnapped. Had he done something wrong? Something must have gone horribly wrong. Wasn't Dogman trying to save her? Yes, so...what, what did they think he did?

The men had stopped arguing for a moment. "Look, girl, we will find out sooner or later. But for now, we're giving you a break." They sent her a blank stare before leaving through a pair of steal doors.

And she was alone once again. But she was thankful they hadn't put cloth over her mouth again. She found that quite uncomfortable. But what was she supposed to do now? She looked around the room, nothing but darkness met her.

'Oh well.' She thought to herself. She looked around again, slowly feeling the weariness she had gained. She had completely forgotten how tired she was, she had only been gone a day, but she was so incredibly tired. So...feeling comfort in her solitude, she fell asleep.

Suspense...you feeling it or not?

His eyes remained wide in shock as he laid on the ground. He was alive; he survived the fall. 'I...I thought I would die...' He thoguth to himself as he slowly bent himself up. "What...happened?" All he could remember was the fall. Nothing else came to mind.

"About that strategy you weren't thinking of..." He looked up at the sound of the voice, and then the memories came crashing back to him.

"You!" He pointed an accusing claw at her as he flexed his hands and stood up to face her.

"...You didn't remember your own strength. You could fall with out dying, so why not fall." She finished her statement and prepared her scissors for an attack.

He charged at her angrily, fistes extended, but she quickly jumped above him, laughing. "I will not be defeated so easily."

I'm going to hurt someone if I have to do this for the rest of my writing career...

Well...it turned out they were going for a walk rather than coffee. Or at least that's what he had assumed. They had been walking for a while now, and he hadn't gotten his coffee. But that was okay. The comfortable silence between them was quite refreshing, even though it didn't provide him with any caffeine.

Unfortunately, he had this uncontrolable urge to do something perverted. The only thing that was really stopping him from doing so was the fact that Sango was not only older than him, but there was also the fact she was his friend's boss. He didn't want Kagome to get fired...right after she came home from being kidnapped, that was. And thinking of that, he couldn't help feeling like he wouldn't see Kagome for such a long time. 'Were we really that close? I miss her an awful lot for someone I haven't known for long.' He thought to himself as he kept up with Sango's pace.

Well, it didn't really matter. Good friend or not, he hoped she would be saved soon. "I wonder if Dogman will be the one to save her." He said at loud.

"What?" Sango tilted her head to the side and looked at him curiously. (Boy, did Miroku think that was cute!)

"Nothing!" He answered too quickly.

'Why's the kid being so weird...?' She thoguht to herself as she shrugged her shoulders and kept walking. 'Who needs to be saved by that bastard, anyway? Don't tell me Miroku believes in all that crap.' She rolled her eyes and began to walk faster.

"Why are you waking so fast?" He found himself asking as he tried to catch up.

"Hmm?" Sango mummbled.

"Miss Sango?" He placed his hand on her shoulder.

She jumped out of her skin as she turned to face him. "What?" She asked, as if she just noticed him.

"Why are you walking so fast? Is something wrong?" He looked genuinly worried, she thought it was cute.

"It's nothing, sorry. I just do that sometimes." She smiled and started walking again.

He followed her again. "So where are we giong anyway?" 'We're getting really close to that factory...'

"Just a short cut. There's a nice cafe close to here." She smiled, about to say something when a loud shriek interupted her.

"GOD DAMMIT!"

Page Break...

She looked down at her hair that had just been cut. "I will not forgive you for this. I've been pretty nice so far, but not anymore." The woman glared at him as she fingered the burnt edges of her now short hair. "No one touches my hair." She glared at him, preparing for an attack.

She stood in a offensive position, but she didn't move. And that, that was frustrating Inuyasha. So he charged at her before she started.

"Perfect" She said in a low voice, waiting for him.

He leapt in the air, aiming for her left shoulder with his claws.

Her lips twisted into a smile as the claws dug in. Her eyes twinkled as she brought the scissors in her right hand up and slashed the side of his face.

His expression changed from anger to surprise, and then it contorted into anger again. He groaned. "I'm tired of messing with you." He said angrily as he pushed her to the ground. He then bounded off towards a roof, taking one last look down at her.

He smiled and waved as he neared the roof, but then with a quick motioin of her hand in his direction a thick cord of hair raced towards him.

He couldn't dodge it fast enough and it wrapped around his leg. WIth the force of his jump and the strength of the hair he heard the sickening crack of his own bones and landed on his face. He was now on a rooftop with a broken leg. He wasn't looing very impressive.

She skipped up along the cord of hairs to his side and stood above him, laughing at his agonized expression. "Heh..." She laughed menacingly as she spun the scissors around her finger. "Well...even though I have the perfect opportunity...I'm not going to kill you. Someone already has first dibs." She laughed and grabbed the scissors, stopping them from spinning. "But, that scratch on your face will probably scar, and that leg won't heal over night. I hope I left a lasting memory. Have fun at school. And you better not try to save the girl today, not in your condition." She jumped onto a stable string of hair and quickly made her exit.

"Not this again..."

Blah blah blah page break

They stood there frozen. Had they just seen Dogman defeated by some crazy hair girl? "Sango, did you see that?" Miroku asked, his eyes never leaving the rooftop. They didn't know what had happened last, what the woman had said because the edge of the roof obscured their vision.

"Yes." She answered dryly. She had to admit she was surprised. Not by seeing Dogman, that had happened quite a few times, but by seeing him be beaten. She remaind calm, controling her laughter and turned to look at Miroku. "What's wrong?" She frowned.

"Do...do you think we should help him?" He asked innocently.

"No." She answered quickly.

He turned to face her quickly, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, he can help himself." She offered, grabbing his arm and dragging him down the street. "It's not our job to save heros." She explained.

Um...Sango's strange...hard to believe there will eventually be SxM Fluff or something...well, not in this chapter, but in the future...

She looked around the dark office. "What does Naraku want from me?" She asked. No one was in the room but her at the moment. She sat on the small leather chair, her legs crossed and her lips pursed.

He had ordered her over here an hour ago, and he wasn't even here? It made no sense, but as she learned with Naraku, most of what he did didn't make sense. What did he want, really?

She didn't understand him at all. She would have never helped him or gotten involved with him if he hadn't promised her Inuyasha. That's all she was after anyway. She wasn't that difficult.

But Naraku...she wasn't sure he knew what it was he wanted. First all she had to do was distract Inuyasha so that Kagome would be alone and unprotected, but everything had gotten much more complicated. What was it about that girl that Naraku wanted her so much? Was he some pedaphile? Or...was there something else? Something she wouldn't understand?

She shook her head. She didn't care about Kagome. Naraku could rape her for all she cared. She just wanted her man...who was also obssessed with Kagome.

She hadn't realized that until recently, but it was pretty obvious. She knew he was always thinking of her, Kagome. His mind was never on Kikyo, and that hurt. All she wanted was some attention...

Her eyes stung at that thought. As simple as it seemed, all she wanted was attention. And because of that want, she was in this mess. She was frustrated with herself.

"Naraku, you are a horrible person. You said this would all be simple for me. I can't erase her from his mind. I just can't." She looked down. "Where are you, anyway?" She asked darkly.

The dark room didn't answer her, so she stood up and walked over to his desk. She scanned the wooden top and looked for a note or something explaining his abscence.

And then she found it.

A security camera. There he was...and there Kagome was as well. But Kagome was asleep.

"What is he doing?" She asked as she saw him reach out to the girl's face. The small embrace seemed so vile, even the sleeping Kagome flinched.

Naraku's lips curved into a smile and he caressed her cheek, smiling. She saw his lips move, saying something.

He seemed to kneel there for a while, speaking to the sleeping girl.

"What's he saying?" She asked herself, "I wish these cameras recorded sound." She mumbled as she stood up, preparing to leave the room, tired of watching the interaction.

'I kind of want to help Kagome.' She thought to herself as she found herself leaving the office and searching for the mismatched couple.

Her feet seemed to know where they were going and she quickly found herself in front of a large door, Naraku's voice coming from the room on the other side.

She stood at the door for a moment. Fist balled and on the door, ready to knock. 'Should I?'

"You're so beautiful when you're asleep. You look just like my wife did."

Her eyes widened. 'I...I don't like Kagome, but this sounds...wrong. I don't know! But I can't let Kagome just get raped...can I?'

She knocked against the door and opened it quickly.

She heard someone shuffle quickly, and an angry Naraku was facing her. "What the hell are you doing here?" He looked at her with wide eyes, both surprised and angry.

She shivered in his prescence. "You called. I have school tomorrow, I need to get home soon."

He rolled his eyes at her and motioned her to get out.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and made her way into the hall, thankful he was now following her and Kagome was alone again.

But she wondered if she had missed something while she ran down to that room...did something happen?

End of chapter...please review. And, Kikyo's not always bad...

Thanks for the reviews from last chapter! Please review for this chapter too! Hope you liked this one!


	16. Temporarily

I need to check some dates...but I don't think it's been a whole month since I last updated! So I guess that means I've been typing more over the summer! Not that that counts for much... And page breaks aren't working AGAIN! I'm a try to use a line...

Oh! And the next chapter of Those Eyes is finished...just gotta send it to the beta!

Thanks to all the reviewers! Ya'll are awesome!

**Inu**-**Yugi**- I thought you had given up on this story a long time ago! I'm so glad to see you reviewed...hope you review this time too!

**Suaru**- I'm updating...and Those Eyes will be updated soon!

silverwolf8907- Wicked good? Hehe...I like that!

**Auxana**- Thanks for the review! I'm hoping to update faster with summer break!

**Crystalfire92** -Thanks! And yea...totally inspired by Spiderman 2! Hee hee...no wonder...

Anyways, here it is...

Chapter Sixteen: Temporarily

He wished she had been lying to him, but he found her words to be the truth. His leg was very soar, but not broken anymore, and he had a scar across his cheek. 'If only I was a full demon...my leg would have healed...and so would this scar.' He thought to himself as he changed into a pair of old jeans.

Just because Kagome was gone didn't mean he could miss school, or at least that's what Sesshoumaru told him. 'You can't miss school just because she's gone. You can save her soon, but don't miss class. Your future rides on your school performance, being a hero won't keep you off the streets when you're an adult, and I'm sure as hell not going to support you after high school.' Did his brother have to be so cruel about it? Inuyasha didn't argue with the youkai, he had a point. And besides, there was no telling how serious Naraku was anyway, what could he do?

Inuyasha shook his head and slipped on a black hoodie. 'I have to go to school to get my mind off of this. Dwelling on this subject isn't healthy for me. I can't help Kagome unless I'm in perfect condition.' He slid on his shoes and limped down the stairs.

He had stayed in his hanyou form all night so that his wounds would heal, but he wasn't strong enough. Only a full demon could heal so quickly.

He grabbed his bag which had been thrown by the couch a few days ago, and he headed out of the door. The wind was blowing lightly, causing his long ebony hair to fly about his face. 'Ugg...I hate the wind.' He thought cynically as he made his way down the porch steps. 'And why do we have stairs all over the place! They're hard to walk down!' He hopped off the last step and looked to his right.

'Kagome...' He looked towards her house, silent as usual. he wished she would be coming out of the door this morning, but he knew that was impossible. "It's all my fault." He whispered aloud to himself as he slowly made his way down to the bus stop. 'I've screwed this whole thing up so badly...'

"Inuyasha! What happened to you!" Came the squeal of Ayame as he stepped up into the bus. 'God damn stairs...'

"Don't worry about him Ayame, he probably got in a fight yesterday." Came the voice of Yura who was sitting right beside the surprised girl.

"You have no idea how right you are." Inuyasha agreed as he stumbled down the middle isle of the bus.

"Inuyasha?"

"What?" He asked turning to look across the isle at Miroku.

"What happened to you, man?" His friend asked, concerned.

"Nothing, just got a little scratched up." He laughed it off and patted his leg.

Miroku would have been convinced if Inuyasha hadn't winced as he touched his leg. "Man, I think you should go see a doctor."

"Why? It happens all the time." He brushed it off.

"No it doesn't. No one ever lays a hand on you when you fight with them." Miroku pointed out. And it was true, Inuyasha was pretty good at fighting even as a human. And you could expect someone with his aggressive nature to get into a nice number of fights...

"Well, I'm a little rusty." He commented, and then he turned to look out of the window. The two sat in silence a moment as the old bus made its way down the street.

'The newspaper office...' Miroku thought as they passed by. "Hey, Inuyasha, where were you?" He turned to face his friend, who was still looking out of the window.

"What do you mean?" He asked, still looking out. "When?" He turned to face his friend.

"At the Ball. I thought you would be there...but you weren't."

Inuyasha stared into his friend's curious eyes. 'What can I say..'

"Look, I know you didn't realize this might happen but, " Miroku leaned across the isle so that he could speak at a lower volume. "Kagome's been kidnapped."

Inuyasha tried his best to look surprised, tried his best to look like he was clueless.

"It's true, I swear. And...she's that girl in that warehouse."

"How do you know?"

"I...I was there." Miroku looked down guiltily. "I tried to help her, but I couldn't." He looked up at Inuyasha.

"Is she okay?"

"She was when I last saw her...but that doesn't mean anything..."

* * *

Did it show? Please tell me it shows!

She sat there in the dark corner of a strange room. She was holding her legs up to her body, holding as tightly as she could. 'He...he almost got to me...' Her eyes were wide with fright. It's not like this was the first time Naraku tried to hurt her, but this time there was no one to s top him. Her mother wouldn't be able to intervene. She felt a different kind of fear as he had approached her last night. There would be no one to save her here in this strange place. 'Miroku...Inuyasha...Dogman...someone! Someone please help me!' She screamed internally.

She didn't know who the person was that cause Miroku to stop yesterday, but she thanked God that the girl had been there to help her. She didn't want to know what could've happened to her otherwise.

She bit her lip as she stared at her bare knees. I can't believe that he's done this to me. At home I could get away...but here...how can I save myself? I don't know where I am and I have no clue how to get out. That and there are all those weird guys around this place...' She rested her head on her knees. "I...I can't do anything. He's going to hurt me, and I can't stop him!" She whimpered.

She took in a deep breath as she looked around the room in which she was confined in. So dark...she could only guess what the objects in the room were by their shape. 'This must be some kind of janitor's closet. It looks like a bunch of mops or something.'

She stood up, struggling because of the ties around her wrists which made it hard for her to balance. 'If I can just get out of here...I don't hear anyone on the other side of the door.'

There should be a line here!

* * *

He struggled to get out of the bus, slowly trudging after Miroku. "Are you sure you're okay?" He inquired as he waited for his friend to make his way down the steps.

"I'm fine, I swear." He answered gruffly. "Just because I can't walk doesn't mean I'm going to die or anything, so stop worrying. It's creepy." He sent his friend a sly look, trying to change the tone of the conversation.

"Sorry Inuyasha, it's just that with Kagome gone and all I don't want anything to happen to you. One friend in danger is more than enough." He looked down and for the first time the weight he was carrying on his shoulders was evident to Inuyasha.

"Hey man, it's okay. Kagome will be fine." Inuyasha patted his friend on the back.

"How do you know that, Inuyasha?" Miroku stood up straight, face to face with his friend. "You weren't even there. She was about to be hurt and all I could do was watch." He narrowed his eyes. "You couldn't even be there to help her! Don't tell me shell be okay!"

Inuyasha backed up, his expression changing into a hard glare. "Look, I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you, but I know she's gone! I've known the whole time. I didn't abandon her! I've been trying to help her too!" He turned defensive. 'I'm sorry Miroku, but that's the only way I can pout it with out giving myself away.'

'He knew...?" Miroku relaxed a but and stared at his friend. "You knew Inuyasha?"

"Miroku! I was there when he left the Ball! I followed you guys!" He raised his arms for emphasis. "And then...she kind of is my neighbor. Even if I didn't see her leave the dance., don't you think I would have noticed that she wasn't coming home?

"Oh, yea." Miroku slapped his head. "Look man, I'm sorry Inuyasha. I'm just a little stressed so I've been jumping to a lot of conclusions lately."

"It's okay man." Inuyasha smiled at him and turned around to the court yard. "Let's get to school."

"Hey, Inuyasha?"

"Yea?"

"Why is their a camera crew in front of out school?"

"I don't...know..."

* * *

This line better show...ugg...

And she was right, there wasn't anyone on the other side of the door. The only problem was that she couldn't open it. "God Dammit!" She punched the door as she fell to the ground, tears forming at her lashes. "There's no way I can get out of here...all I can do is wait for him to hurt me..." Her head dropped into her lad and she cried.

'How can I do this? Am I just supposed to wait for him to come here and hurt me? I just can't do that!' She hit the door again and looked at the room before her. 'What if I hide?' An idea popped inside her head. 'He can't do anything to me if he can't find me!' A smile fell across her face for the first time in a long time. 'That's it! I'll hide. And if he does find me...I can kick him, he'll be surprised, and I can run out of here! Yes!' She cheered at the thought.

'So...where do I hide?'

* * *

Oh God...if you guys can't see this I swear...

"What is this?" Inuyasha managed to ask as they walked up to the large crowd in front of the school.

"Just the news, they're interviewing Kagome's friends. Trying to figure out who could have kidnapped her." A voice offered.

"Who's that?" Miroku asked as he squinted his eyes, and looked in the direction of the voice.

"That would be me." Replied Kikyo as she walked out of the crowd.

"None of those are her friends..." Miroku began as he looked at the people talking to the camera crew. He was staring at Yura and Ayame in particular. The two were smiling brightly, playing with the hair in front of the camera, and taking the microphone from one of the reporters.

"And how would you know?" Kikyo slyly asked him.

"Because I know her, and I know them, and they hate her!" Miroku said, though he was still glaring at the flirtatious girls on the other side of the crowd.

"So? It's not like she has any friends, it would only look bad for her if no one walked up."

"What are you talking about? She has me and Inu...nu...no...no one just me." He twisted nervously as he caught the look Inuyasha was sending him.

'Don't say that in front of Kikyo! It will only cause me trouble!' Inuyasha thought desperately as he looked at his smiling girlfriend.

"Exactly, she has one friend, and that's as good as none."

Miroku swallowed the insult that flashed across in his mind as he looked helplessly at Inuyasha who could only shrug his shoulders.

"Miroku, would you mind if Inuyasha and I were to be alone for a moment?" Kikyo asked, more like told Miroku.

"Yea, whatever." He waved them off as he made his way towards the school. Watching the crowd would just piss him off if he stayed there. 'Not like I wanted to stay around you for that long anyway Kikyo.'

"So!" Kikyo turned around to face him.

"So?" Inuyasha asked nervously.

"About the Ball..."

"Look, I'm sorry Kikyo, please forgive me!" He pleaded with his wide eyes.

'Like I would just give you up...' "Fine, I'll forgive you, if you never talk to her again." She smiled up at him, looking the image of innocence.

"But Kikyo! She's my best fr-"

"You want to be with me or not? And besides, you have Miroku." She looked up at him, daring him to argue with her.

He inhaled deeply and nodded. "Alright." He managed to say.

There should be a line right about here...

* * *

'Kagome was kidnapped?' Sango's spoon fell into her cereal bowl, clattering. She stared at the television screen in front of her.

* * *

End of chapter!

Hope you liked it! Please review!


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